The Cooley Chronicles

Tanner talked me into starting a new blog using tumblr.com and I love it! So I will no longer be posting here...please check out thecooleychronicles.tumblr.com to see what we are up to :) Read more...

Valentines Day

Kirsten and I are trying to get back into normal routines. It has been tough to do with my travel schedule, but tonight, I think we accomplished our goal.

Before I started my new job, we used to do different events on different nights. Tuesday was blog night. So today, I am writing the blog for the both of us (only because I got an amazing new app on my phone, blogpress).

After Kirsten got off work, which was at a decent hour, we had an amazing dinner out of our P90X book, beef and broccoli stir fry. And, if I'm not mistaken, you can scroll down and read what Kirsten posted about this amazing meal earlier in the year (we will post the recipe for all of you one of these days). Anyway, after our dinner on the deck, we came inside and Kirsten began her first arts and crafts project since we moved to Virginia.


She is creating a canvas Kirsten original to go in our bathroom if I ever get around to re-painting it. I'm 90 percent sure this masterpiece would sell for big bucks if it ever hit Michaels, but we'll settle for it filling the empty wall space in our redecorated half bath.

While she is letting that dry, we're sitting here watching Valentine's Day and taking silly pictures. So, now that we are forcing a schedule on ourselves, you can expect to get more updates like this.



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G.T.K.

So lately I have been on an Amazon Kindle kick. I've been researching everything about it and last night I was relaying all the useful information I had learned about the amazing product. I was telling Tanner everything from the price of the product ($259), to the price of the ebooks ($2 to $10), to the fact that there is no monthly fee (for 3G service), to the fact that you can read in daylight or in the dark, I even threw in a quote from the creator of the Kindle.

After I had blabbered on for a good ten minutes Tanner responded with a simple, "GTK, babe."

In my mind I was like GTK?? Oh! "Get the Kindle?!" I was so happy that I had convinced him that the purchase of a Kindle was a good idea!!!

He shook his head and said, "Good to know."

Damn acronyms, they always get the best of me. Read more...

Teach a (wo)man to fish

In the past Tanner used to be worried about leaving me at home when he went out of town. The funny thing is that it wasn't because he was afraid for my safety it was because he thought I might starve to death. Well good news is that fear is slowly subsiding and that is pretty much thanks to P90X.

Since I work late it has become pretty routine for me to call when I'm on my way home and Tanner makes dinner while I'm driving so we can eat before 9 p.m. Which pretty much gives me no time to experience anything in the kitchen besides eating. But the P90X plan has lead us to spend most of our free time planning, buying, and preparing meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We have both been so into it. Tanner has been doing most of the preparing and since I am a habitual list maker I have really become involved and have been making intricate lists for us. This has taught me where all the healthy items are hiding in the grocery store.

When I realized Tanner would be out of town for 5 days for a business trip I knew that my old ways of Subway sandwiches, turkey roll-ups, and cereal were not going to cut it. So I have been asking Tanner the tough questions while he's cooking and even got him to let me slip in and get some hands on experience. The question I find myself asking the most is, "Well how did you know that?" I have to give Tanner some serious credit because it cannot be easy dealing with a domestically challenged individual and getting texts that say how long do you cook broccoli for and how do I cut these green onions while he is networking with important people.

Last weekend when Tanner left to Chicago slash L.A. I was definitely thrown into the fire. I did not have the skills to accomplish any of the tasks before me. But I can proudly say that I did not frequent McDonald's or Subway the entire time he was gone and the fact that I was alone made it so I couldn't be scared I just had to face the fiery stove.

I spent the entire weekend focused on my mission of learning to be self sufficient. With the help of Tanner call/texts, google searches, and youtube views I was able to create spinach/feta scramble, turkey with gravy, lemon garlic chicken and pork tenderloin salad. The best moment was when I came across this little jem:



I imagined these would be the worst few days of my life but I was having so much fun prepping my OWN meals, reorganizing the kitchen so I could reach things and watching the cooking channel. I have always been so afraid of the idea of cooking, who knew I would actually enjoy it? I am pretty sure this is beginning of something great. Read more...

Autopilot

Last night I read a couple articles from a blog called the The Happiness Project. This month's theme is Mindfulness, it had a quiz so I decided to take it and I did pretty awful. Being mindful means not being careless, really paying attention to the task at hand a.k.a unitasking..(I was just trying to watch a movie and write this post at the same time putting a half effort into both), being attentive, focused, and well you get the idea.

After reading this article I felt inspired to make an effort to be more mindful. Being conscious of the fact that you need to work on something is the easy part, actually following through is another story. I was thinking about this all morning from the time I got up...be more mindful, be more mindful, be more mindful...until the moment I watched myself open my trunk, set down my bags, pick up my purse, reach up to close the trunk, and Oh No! There is, or shall I say was, my keys. Smooth. Apparently mastery of mindfulness isn't achieved on day one. Read more...

Habits

Once long ago Tanner purchased the P90X DVDs in with the plan of becoming ripped in 90 days. Well that lasted for quite a while until the the thought of working out in the living room one more time with Tony Horton become too much too handle. These DVDs have pretty much been collecting dust since and our eating habits have slowly evolved into asking each other what's the fastest thing we can cook or order. Which unfortunately usually happens to have the most calories and fat.

We had an awakening when we realized it was swimsuit season and have decided we definitely need to make a plan. We have a gym membership at Lifetime so Tanner has decided he is going to take his P90X workouts to the gym 6 days a week and I plan to get there as many days a week as I can. But let's be honest that's not the only part of a healthy lifestyle...food choices may be just as important if not more important. And the good news is that P90X came with a meal plan. We thought the first step to feeling healthier would be to give this plan another shot. So it starts today everyone. We went to the grocery store and spent most of our morning in the produce section and the rest of our time searching for things we had never purchased before like soba noodles and ginger. We then proceeded to empty our wallets for the cashier. It sucks that food that is good for you costs so much more than all those yummy, I mean nasty, processed foods.

We have been super healthy all day but we have also been wearing ornery pants...I guess if you're not used to eating healthy in portioned sizes you get ornery. We did get happy when we prepped and ate our amazing dinner, beef and broccoli stir-fry.
It was to die for. Its been about an hour and Tanner just said with wide eyes, "I would love to have waffles and syrup and bacon right now." I am pretty sure this is going to be quite the challenge but hopefully we will make some good habits in the process. Read more...

1,2,3.....Mexico!

Last week we hopped on a plane for our first vacation out of the country...we didn't prepare much besides booking the flight and hotel and packing our bags. Truthfully we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into at all.

I loved that scene in Sex and the City when Charlotte 'Picoopsy'd' in her pants because she accidentally swallowed some of the Mexican water. But the water was the least of our problems...our rude awakening was that not only did our cell phones cost an arm and a leg to use but when we got to our room we had no wireless internet and 2 double beds. We were shocked for a while as we stood on the freezing cold tile floor of our room...can we do this? No facebook, no phones, no email, no tivo, should we push the beds together?

The good thing about Cozumel is that these worldly things are quickly forgotten. No joke this place was amazing. There is no concept of time, an abundance of food, bikini bars, great new friends, and gorgeous views of the ocean. We pretty much laid around getting tan while trying to learn Spanish with, get this, absolutely no worries about anything. This was a much needed relaxing trip for the both of us.
Some quotes/things that I want to remember from our trip.
Imagine the following with a strong Spanish accent:
"Tequila is for la cabeza, comprende?" the guy that made us really strong margaritas right when we first arrived...
"Honeymooners?" everyone's first question for us :)
"Hola, skinny-mini," a girl downtown trying to compliment me so I would buy jewelry.
"Okie-Dokie & Skake it, Shake it but don't break it," quotes from our favorite bartender at the bikini bar. Read more...

Oh 4/15 where are you?

April may be the cruelest month...(well and January, February, and March...) Busy season is really kicking my butt this time around. I spend endless hours staring at the computer doing endless amounts of work! Help! I love it when I think I am wrapping up and I am told I have to do JUST one more thing before I leave and its already 9 p.m.!! That 1 hour a night I spend on my couch just isn't satisfying me anymore. No joke when I get home sometimes this is my night: late dinner, then plop on the couch because I am so exhausted, then I climb into bed to wake up to do it all over again.

I'm missing out on all those simple pleasures in life...like 2-day weekends, watching LOST, doing the laundry once a week, leaving the office when its light outside, putting my relationships first, homecooked meals, yoga class (okay so I never went to yoga class but if I wanted to I wouldn't have time).

I literally had to sell my soul yesterday to leave at 5:30 to go to a Nationals baseball game. Tanner really wanted me to go with him and it wasn't until about 5 p.m. that my fate was finally decided and we found out Tanner would not be going stag. By the way I am really lucky to have such an understanding husband...It was such an amazing night even though the Nats didn't win. It was perfect weather for a baseball game and I made sure to really enjoy every minute.

The good news is April 15th lies just around the corner and soon there will be many more wonderful nights like these. Sometimes I need to step back and realize that yes my job is tasking on me and my personal life at certain times of the year. But also realize that I am lucky to have a job during these tough times when others do not, I am getting great experiences and I am building an outstanding resume even if it does come with a few tear-stained late nights. Read more...

American Idol: Rolling Stones week

Tanner and I have been really into American Idol this year. We watch every single episode religiously and analyze all of the contestants and of course cast our votes (when we remember since we can't text in until Utah is done watching with our 435 cell phones). Its a fun thing to do together that we really enjoy especially since I have a limited amount of time at home these days because of tax season.

I would have to say that Rolling Stones week had some of the most memorable performances. I wanted to post videos of our two favorite contestants: Lee Dewyze and Didi Benami. They are awesome! Enjoy.

Lee Dewyze - Beast of Burden


Didi Benami - Play with Fire
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Did you know....?

Did everyone except me know that there is a real name for those little fuzzies that collect on your blankets and clothing sometimes? There is also an official name for that crazy jigga-jagga stuff on the side of the highway that vibrates your entire car and body from the inside out to warn you when you are going off the side of the road. My friend Jen lead me to the following websites in order to prove to me there are actual names for these two words.

Pilling - http://missourifamilies.org/quick/materialqa/material13.htm

Rumble Strip - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_strip

I guess you learn something new everyday. Read more...