Stay-cation

Remember how I went to Hawaii for my birthday last year and never posted about it? Yeah me too. Maybe someday but probably not. While we were there I asked Aaron what his ideal vacation would be. After some thought he came up with something like this

"It would be all the good stuff of going on vacation but at home. You know like eating out as much as you want but sleeping in your own bed and just doing whatever you want."


Thus the Staycation was born.

Aaron took off Thursday and Friday from work with the plan of staying home all weekend doing whatever he felt like guilt free. Stay up till 2am playing video games? Sure, you on staycation! Only eat take out or delivery? Uh that's mandatory for a good staycation. Watch ridiculous amounts of TV? Again pretty much the whole point. And at the end of each night sleep in your own bed. Perfection!

I wanted to make it more fun than just hang out at home all day, everyday for 4 days so I decided on a surprise. And to make sure I actually did it I told Aaron about weeks in advance (we really like to anticipate events around here). He asked me about it constantly, because as many of you may know, I'm not the best at keeping presents a surprise. I'm proud to say that he had no idea until he opened it.

I rearranged all the furniture in our bedroom, got a new duvet cover and a new shower curtain. I got him a hotel room at home!

There are no before shots but oh well.

And I'm not the best at taking pictures

It was fun and made the staycation more vacation-y.

Portlandia

Another road trip post!

Aaron has a friend from AZ that I named Friend Brad so I wouldn't get confused when he was talking about Boss Brad. Well I accidentally called Friend Brad that to his face and he thought it was great. He liked it so much he bought a few url's on the spot. Anyways, Friend Brad moved to Portland so we decided to go visit him.

By Train.

For reals we took a train, it was a really fun adventure.

We walked around downtown, went to a book store called Powell's that is almost a city block. It's got 4-5 different wings, new and used books, it was pretty much amazing. Mom, you would LOVE it.

There was something called Saturday Market which is like a big craft fair.

We also went to this famous doughnut shop called Voodoo Doughnuts. Dad you would LOVE this place :)

We actually waited in line for 45 minutes to get these doughnuts but it was worth it!

That is an ODB it is a raised doughnut with chocolate icing, crushed up Oreos and drizzled with peanut butter. Sooooo goooooood.

Again there are pictures we took with Aaron's phone that I don't know how to access yet so there will be a follow up post on this one hopefully later this week or early next week.

Goonies, cheese and icecream

What do all of these things have in common? We got them on our road trip! Aaron and I both decided we should go on a road trip, mostly because we love snacks. Really that is our favorite part. So we loaded up on high sugar, high salt and high fat food stuffs and headed out on the open road.

We decided to drive down the coast and enjoy the scenery. At one look out spot I saw this and pretty much had a mini freak out.

THAT IS THE ROCK FROM GOONIES!!!!!!!

It turns out that we totally drove through Astoria, OR where Goonies was filmed. So exciting!

This is my super handsome husband closer to the cool haystack rock.

Besides snacks and discovering we drove through Goonies, we had pretty much amazing grilled cheese sandwiches and ice cream at the Tillamook Factory.

There are more pictures on Aaron's phone but I'm not sure where they update to so maybe in a weeks there will be a post with random pictures.

Anyways, we had a great time spending the day together and also listening to a great book called Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. It was excellent.

Which is better?

I'm a product tester with a group called Bzzagent so I get free stuff and coupons and all I have to do is tell people about it. Jealous? Sign up here.


VS


Well I got a Schick Hydro razor for free so I thought I'd do a thorough test. I opened a brand new head of my usual razor, Venus Embrace, so that both would be sharp. Also I used shaving gel since it does actually make your legs smoother. My right leg was shaved with the Venus Embrace and the left with the Schick Hydro.

What each was evaluated on:

1. Blade
2. Overall Leg Smoothness
3. Razor burn feeling afterward
4. How comfortable it is to hold

So who won? Well let me tell you.


1. The Schick blade was good and bad. Good -- really sharp blades means I got a close shave. Bad -- Sharp blades means I cut myself :( Also the Venus blade has more conditioning strips around the blades so I don't have to be quite so careful while shaving which is great for me because I'm clumsy. Winner: You choose

2. After shaving I had my husband test each leg for smoothness to see if he could tell a difference. For a while he couldn't really tell but after 30 seconds declared that my left leg was just little bit smoother than my right. Winner: Schick Hydro

3. I did get a little bit more of a razor burn feeling with the Schick but not by much. Winner: Venus Embrace

4. Both have comfortable handles and the heads move pretty well. Winner: Tie!


I'm not sure which is would win for you but for me, I think I'll stick to my Venus Embrace.

Made up

One of Aaron's Christmas presents from me was a more done up wife. I went to Sephora and dropped a fair amount on fancy make up since I didn't want to do it half way. In my quest to learn how to do my make up better I found this make up blog. It's really cool and great if you are like me, a make up novice.

I followed her video and this is the result. I probably should have posted a before shot but oh well.

I waxed my eyebrows myself too.

I also bought some rose colored jeans at Ross for only .... wait for it .... $4.50!!!! Even if I only wear them 3 times it was totally worth it. 

The pic isn't the greatest because I took it myself.

Zombies, Run!

This is a little app that has changed my life.

As so many people in the world do, I don't really enjoy jogging. It's tiring, it doesn't burn very many calories, and to me it's boring. With swimming at least I don't have to pay attention to where I'm going and can just zone out, not really a good idea when running around outside.  I've tried music but it doesn't keep my attention for long enough. I've also read books while walking on a treadmill and that was awesome except for the fact that I can't read and jog at the same time. Audio books would work but I'm not good at motivating myself to go faster than a moderate walk.

That is the beauty of this app. It's essentially a zombie story that you as a runner are a part of. It tells you a story but it's interspread with your music playlist and occasionally zombie hordes chasing you. So I get two different kinds of entertainment and someone telling me to occasionally run faster in a way that is really motivational.

Other cool things about it. You pick up supplies along the way so during one of your songs it will interrupt for a second and say "picked up a pair of trousers." or maybe first aid kits or whatever and at the end of you run you can build up your little town. It's like those silly addicting games on your phone but you only get items during your run.

Did I mention it tracks your run on GPS so you know your speed, how far you ran, and the actual route you took?

Aaron and I both walked/jogged 5km yesterday and I actually had fun. What!?!? I actually had fun jogging? I never thought I'd say it.

So if you want a fun way to get into jogging check out Zombies, Run!

Best Things about the New Place

Here are some of my favorite things about our new apartment

1. I can walk to pretty much everything I need: 2 grocery stores, a pharmacy, the post office, various mom and pop restaurants and a Top Pot Doughnuts. What more do I need in life? Also having a grocery store across the street means better dinners. Why? Because say I was making Mu Shu pork lettuce wraps and I forgot to buy mushrooms, instead of just leaving them out I walk downstairs and buy them. Hmm I'm feeling like taquitos for dinner but don't have fresh cilantro? Walk the 2 minutes and buy some. Seriously it's my new favorite.

2. Big, NICE kitchen. This is pretty much amazing. Cooking is sooooooo much easier when there is more than 2 square feet of counter top. The granite counter tops, new appliances and new cabinets are just lovely

3.  Roof Garden. Do I need to even say anything else?

4. Free BBQ grills. There are two grills on the roof for anyone to use which is nice. We invited some friends over and we grilled and ate outside on the roof. It was beautiful.

I'll post up some pictures soon.