Meatballs with a Side of Catch Up

Sooooooooo....

It's been exactly a month since my last post. Bad, bad blogger. But there has been good reason for my absence. Full time work, softball tryouts, thesis writing er, planning, camping, MY BIRTHDAY, and some laundry sprinkled in here and there has made my days plenty full. I'm making a come back today though... Here's what's been going on:

I'm trying to cook more often and eat healthier. It doesn't seem like it should be so difficult, but I'm away from the house from 5:45 am to 5:30ish pm right now and by the time I get home, I just want to sit down and relax. But one of my goals is to be the best wife and healthiest person I can be. So I attempted to make spaghetti and homemade turkey meatballs. This is what my meatballs looked like pre-oven:

 See the sogginess? Yeah. I didn't know what to expect. They looked ridiculous, but they ended up being pretty good.

I've still been going to the gym every morning with my mom. She's doing a great job! Actually, last week I had to take a little break because my left knee was killing me. It was so bad I thought I had torn a ligament or something serious. But I iced it every night (11 minutes on, 11 minutes off x2) and took a 5 day break and it feels great now! And even on the days I didn't go, my mom still went. I'm so proud of her!

As far as other everyday things go, I'm getting kind of annoyed at work. For reasons I shouldn't just throw out on the internet. The only thing keeping me sane is my own insanity. Like when I saw this:

I wanted to get all Dwight Shrute on my coworker's desk. 

 And then I just start laughing at my ridiculousness and I feel good again.

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In the spirit of catching up, one highlight of the last month was my birthday. Brian took me out to a very nice dinner at Gladstones in Malibu. Right on the beach during sunset. Perfection!

 I love this guy!

Also that weekend, we went camping with a group of our besties. The camping wasn't for my birthday, it just happened to be the same weekend. A weekend that was filled with carne asada, camp fires, s'mores, and bocce ball... sounds like a good time to me!

 See how close we were to the water?? For the last several years, I have had a recurring dream that a wave crashes over me. Sometimes it's been a rushing wave, like what we've seen tsunamis looking like in more recent times. Sometimes it's a tidal wave. Sometimes I'm in the water and I just float through it and sometimes I'll be driving along side of it. It's different every time. But the fact that I have had dreams like this more than once gave me pause once I realized how close our campsite was to the water.

 But we were obviously safe and it was really nice to fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the shore.

I took this picture of Brian and my brother because they were both wearing blue shirts, gray shorts, and hats. So cute of them to dress alike. I'm jealous. :)

 On the way home, we went to Ventura for some fish and chips in what has become a tradition to conclude our camping trips. And we had to reenact one of my favorite pictures from last year:

Be still, my heart!

The whole last month hasn't been all fun and games though- the day before my birthday, we actually had a break from all the So Cal heat and there was actually rain. Unfortunately, since it only rains like, twice a year here, any weather that isn't sunny tends to bring out the crazy in drivers. Brian got into an accident on his way to work. He was fine, but his car didn't fare as well.

 The bad news- his Ford Explorer was totaled. But some good did come out of it. We bought a new car. It's our first major purchase together, it was a great find, and although this wasn't how we wanted to go about it, we had been talking about getting a newer car.

Brian loves it and I'm happy that he's safe.

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On a creative front, I've been doing some projects around the house. I finally finished decorating the eat-in area of the kitchen.

I went from my usual beach theme to a more world traveler theme. On one wall, I put up pictures that I had taken in Europe two years ago and on the other wall, I just put up some art and decor that I had been collecting. I also took a note from Young House Love and put up a map with pins that signify all of the places that Brian and I have traveled together.

Hard to see, I know. But they're there! And we're planning on adding more!

With the "new" kitchen, I felt inspired to try some stuff in the kitchen. I made some cake pops!

Long story short, they're delicious! Recipe coming soon!

In other creative news, I've made these:

To help keep us organize. I'll let you know if they help.

And this:

It looks better when it's not in cell phone picture form. I'm actually pretty excited about it!

FINALLY, I really want to do this but Kevin needs a costume... what should Kevin be for Howl-o-ween???