December Rewind Part Deux

In an effort to knock out as much of December 2013 as I can before 2014 arrives, I give you:

...Part deux (that's "two" for all you non french speakers out there)

Check out Part Un here

One of the most feverish debates of the holiday season is your Christmas tree:

Real or fake?

In the Townsend household it's really not a debate. Real tree's the way to be.

All day errry day. If it were up to Nate however, it'd be a fake tree. ...Good thing it's not up to him. We took it a step further this year and instead of opting for just a real tree, we (and when I say "we" I really mean me) decided to actually go cut one down from the forest.

I dubbed it:

Operation Townsend Tree Acquisition

In order to successfully complete this mission you'll need a few items:

1.) Security clearance from the government
i.e. a permit from the Forest Service

2.) A topography report
i.e. a map detailing where Christmas tree cutting is permitted
...provided by yours truly, the Forest Service 

3.) Special intelligence
i.e. what species of trees are permitted to be taken

4.) Dogs, to track the scent of your desired Christmas tree

Just kidding, I don't think that's really a thing.

We just brought ours so they could have a fun day. 

After walking...and walking...and walking, and seeing nothing but Ponderosa Pines, we finally stumbled on this beaut of a Spruce tree. Seemingly the only one in the entire Sitgreaves National Forest.

And since Ponderosa's aren't very Christmas tree-like, we didn't hesitate in taking the axe to the Spruce.
And when I saw "we" I really mean Nate.
And when I say axe I really mean hand saw.
Cause we...er Nate, was sans power tools.

If you looked up the word "manly" in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of Nate cutting down a tree in the Forest and hauling it out on his shoulder.
Kind of like you see above.

Manly men for the win.

Anywho, to make a long story short, you saw the before, now here's the after:

It's crooked, and really bushy on the bottom, and too big for our living room, but I don't even care cause we searched, and chopped, and transported it all by ourselves.
And when I say "ourselves" I really mean mostly Nate.
I mean, I helped with the searching, but he did all the chopping...and all the other hard work involved.

Real trees for the win.

Operation Townsend Tree Acquisition was a success.

December Rewind Part Un

Hey guys.

It's me. Carissa.

You may not remember me, since I basically haven't been around for the whole month of December.

...And on that note, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your guys' well wishes and support on my last post (technically I guess it'd be the post before last, but who's really counting?)

The blogging community and blog friends are some of the best support and encouragement a girl can find, am I right?! So thank you to everyone who reached out, 

it really makes me feel nice and warm and fuzzy inside (insert smiley face emoji with hearts in its eyes here).

Sometimes crappy things happen and all your bloggy ju-ju is gone, and then sometimes you have meaningful conversations with the right people and you feel better and you feel things are moving forward, and suddenly you also feel your bloggy ju-ju start to come back. 

And that's where I'm at.

That said, I'm going to try and cram a months worth of action into a couple days since the new year is right around the corner (say whaaaat?!).

Ladies and gentleman, I bring you:

...Part Un (that's "one" for all you non french speakers out there)

Earlier in the month my parents, and Nate and I went to the Scottsdale Princess Resort for their annual Christmas at the Princess celebrations. It was lovely, and beautiful, and Christmas-y, and I for one, enjoyed pretending like I'm rich enough to hang out at the Princess on the reg.

Maybe someday.

We went for the ice skating since, last year we tried out the rink at City Skate in downtown Phoenix and wanted a change of scenery this year.

We got both a change of scenery and a change of heart in that my mom decided she would actually try ice skating this year.

Breaking news: she survived!

Granted, she clung to the railing for a good part of the night, but this Michigander sure got the hang of it by the end of the night.

In fact, we voted, and by unanimous decision (well except for my dad), determined that she was actually better than my dad, who skated last year.

He'll probably actually disagree with that, but he paid for dinner so we didn't protest too much.

Speaking of dinner...

after we finished ice skating we enjoyed some Mexican food (and drink(s)!) outside at one of the resort restaurants with our own fire pit thing-y with marbles instead of charcoal...or whatever else you use for a contained fire.

You know things are getting fancy when your fire has marbles in it. 

That, and when your dinner comes it's the size of an appetizer.

Why, the more expensive the restaurant the more chincy (sp?) the portions??

Me no likey.

...the portions, not the food. Or drinks. Me likey the drinks.

After dinner we walked around the resort and looked at all their Christmas lights on display, watched a humongous, flashing, musical Christmas tree light up to Christmas music, and enjoyed a few 

more cocktails.

Or hot chocolate and Bailey's.

Or both.  

After we finished enjoying all the Christmas-y goodness of the resort we stopped and looked at Christmas lights on the way home...of which I only took one picture:

Buuuut I'm pretty sure that's the only picture we need right??

I have Christmas tree hunting, Christmas day, and other miscellaneous December-ness coming, so don't touch that remote!

...kidding, this isn't television. Or a cheesy 90's infomercial. 

If I was really concerned I suppose I could say, don't touch that mouse! Or track pad! 

But I'm really not that concerned.

This entire paragraph really, was uncalled for.

Sometimes I have a hard time ending blog posts, and I feel like that's becoming obvious right now.

Sooooo, bye!

Merry Christmas

Love, the Townsends

Let's Talk About Feelings

I’ve started this post a total of four times on four separate occasions over the last three weeks or so.

Each time it began different, continued differently, and was never finished.

Quite frankly, I really just don’t know what to say.

I don’t like to talk about feelings.

Unless its joy, happiness, or love, I don’t even really like to feel feelings.

Sadness, anger, frustration, sorrow, grief – I don’t want to feel those. But who really does? I usually do the best I can to avoid those feelings and I have to say, I’ve gotten pretty good at it.

But something’s happened, and it’s forced me to feel all these things and there’s no avoiding it this time.

I hate to be that person that talks a lot without actually saying anything. The one that tells you all about how upset I am, but not about what’s making me upset.

I am going to be that person though, because I also don’t believe in airing dirty laundry on the internet.

Especially when it’s not my laundry, nor my choices that soiled this perfectly clean load of laundry.

Even if that dirty laundry affects me and my world, it’s still not my place to hang it up on a clothes line for all the internet to see.

And that’s why I haven’t been around here lately.

Because I’m stuck feeling all these things that are breaking my heart, but I can’t come to this space and tell you about it, nor can I come to this space and act like nothing’s happened; there’s enough of that pretending going on already.

I don’t even really like to write about feelings…at least not for publication.

 I’m afraid it looks like a desperate cry for attention. 

I’m afraid this looks like a desperate cry for attention.

It’s not.

I just needed to tell my favorite blog friends why I haven’t been around.

I just needed to get this one post off my chest, for my own sake, before I can continue blogging and trying to be funny or creative or come up with post ideas again.

Because funny, and new ideas, and creativity is far from where my head is at.

Far from where my heart is at.

But my hope is that after I hit “publish,” and this post is out there for all of blog world to see, that I might be able to climb out of this blogging valley and get my inspiration back.

Get my blog back.

Because I miss it.

Operation Fitness Link-up #2

It's that time again, linking up with Sarah on this lovely Sunday for the second installment of Operation Fitness Link-up! And guess what? I actually put a little fitness into my life this week. 

I know, I wasn't sure it was going to happen either, but with the help of a few accountability partners and this link-up, I think I've finally found some motivation; it's still slow-going and we're definitely starting small, but nonetheless, it's there.

I purchased a Groupon a couple weeks ago for 10 classes at a local yoga studio that offers a variety of classes beyond only yoga. I mentioned in my last post how I wanted to take advantage of Groupon in lieu of paying for a gym membership, and so far it's been working out (no pun intended) nicely. I had a friend purchase the same Groupon so we've been taking classes together.

Zumba has to be one of my favorite things! I look ridiculous doing it, but it's whatevs cause it's a good workout and it's so fun! Although, if there's only four people in the class on a Monday night, it can make things pretty awkward. You want to be lost in a sea of Zumba-ers so you can pretend no one, including the instructor, sees you, and you can't really do that with only four people. 

Surely they see me, in all my ridiculous-looking Zumba glory.

I also mentioned in my last post that I wanted to get serious about Yoga. 

I'm not quite "serious" yet, but I pinned a crap-ton of Yoga pins on Pinterest and bought an actual pair of Yoga pants. ...So I'm getting there.

One of the pins I found was this "Backbend Sequence for Anyone Who Sits All Day."

I did the sequence a few times over the last week and it hurts sooooo goooood!

I'm extra aware of my posture while sitting at work in my desk chair now and it makes me want to come home to do this sequence even more. ...cause I have pretty terrible posture in my desk chair. 

Womp Womp.

My challenge for myself this next week will be to go to a few classes on my own. For some reason I'm really weird about this and I'm always afraid to go to a class by myself. With busy schedules and the holidays it's not always easy to attend the same classes with a friend, so I just need to quit being weird and do a class (or two) solo!

Am I the only one with this fear? Do you try new things by yourself with no problem?

Thanks again, Sarah for hosting!

Sunshine Award: The Magic Number is 11

One of my good bloggy friends Amanda, over at Voyage of the MeeMee nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award this week.

Well feed me garlic and call me stinky, I never win anything! 

Thanks Amanda, you're the bomb.com. Now everyone go check her out before we continue. I'll wait here.......

Good, now, there's a bunch of rules to this, things like, write 11 random things about you, answer 11 questions posed to you, but because I'm lazy and I'm starting this post out suuuuper late, hopefully she won't be mad at me if I don't type them all out here...we can still be friends, right?!

11 Random Facts:

1.) People never believe me when I tell them I'm 26.

The guy with Cox last week told me I sounded "just like a little baby" over the phone.

Ummmm, what??

2.) I'd rather be hot than cold

...I'm an Arizona native, so this one might not be such a "random" fact.

3.) I've interned for a United States Congressmen before

...in their District Office, not in DC.

I shouldn't have told you that, it sounds way fancier if I were to have been in DC.

4.) I love burned hot dogs

5.) I can't read a blog and have a GIF blinking anywhere in my peripheral. Way too distracting.

6.) I got stuck in traffic once and had to pee so bad that I ended up peeing in an empty baking dish in the back seat of my friends car. It was actually pretty impressive.

There's no denying when nature calls. 

7.) I like to watch C-Span

8.) Dairy makes my sinuses terribly congested, but I'll never turn down a bowl (or bowls, plural) of 

mac n' cheese. Or spinach ravioli from Costco.

9.) I thought Twilight was stupid.

10.) I still think fart jokes are funny.

11.) My husband things I drink too much wine.

---------------------------

Amanda's questions for me:

1.) If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Omg, that's a lot of pressure.

Anything George Strait. Is that close enough to 'one song?' 

2.) How many hours a day do you spend doing blog related stuff?

If "blog related" counts as staring at a blank computer screen trying to think of something to write about, I'd say roughly 4ish.

But if I'm trying to find GIFs you can probably double that time. 

3.) If you could have any super hero power, what would it be?

Easy, to be able to wish for any super power in the entire world, at any point in time, and have it be granted to me. 

Or, be able to shoot spaghetti out of my finger tips, a la Dane Cook.

4.) Are you a morning person, afternoon person, or night person?

I'm probably a night person in reality. I really really wish I was a morning person, but we all know that getting out of bed is the hardest part of the day.

5.) How much wood would a wood chuck chuck...screw it, you get a free pass here. 

Yesssss.

6.) What is your current favorite TV show? 

Big Bang Theory all day errrr day!!! 

Bazinga!!!

7.) Are you left or right handed?

Right handed. 

Although, if we're doing gymnastics I'm definitely a lefty. But if we're throwing a softball, I'm a righty.

So, maybe I'm ambidextrous?

8.) What is your favorite smell?

Really, Amanda? My favorite smell? You're gonna make me pick a favorite smell in the entire world? 

I thought we were friends, quit throwing me all these hardballs. ...

How about rain. Or fresh cut grass. Or Sharpees. Or those trees that bloom in the summer time with the fuzzy yellow blossoms that fall all over the place and make a such a mess but smell oh-so good? Or my own personal musk, how about that?

9.) Do you ever talk to yourself?

Absolutely. 

Especially when I shop. I loooove to shop by myself and then just casually chat with myself all afternoon, verbalizing my own thoughts right as I think them. ...It sounds like I'm joking, but I'm not. Try it. You won't regret it.

10.) What is your favorite quote?

If y'aint first, yer last.

Or anything Dumbledore said.

11.) Who/what makes you smile like no one/nothing else can?

Jesus.

Macaroni and cheese.

Harry Potter.

My dogs.

My pink BB gun.

Baseball.

The snooze button.

Pickles.

I should probably add my husband for good measure.

...and so on and so forth.

Thanks Amanda for the blog love!

My Weekend in Numbers

Number of loads of laundry I did: 7

Number of Cranberrita's I drank: 5

...they're teeny tiny cans ok?

Number of glasses of wine I drank: 5

Number of times I left my house on Sunday: 1

...and it was for toilet paper. You can't really put that errand off, if you know what I mean.

Number of times I cooked: 1

...and that's once more than I did all last week.

I took a stab at Erin's chili recipe, and while I'm pretty sure it didn't turn out as awesome as hers would've, it totally did the job. Nate even had seconds. And I had leftovers for lunch on Sunday. And Monday. So now that I think about it, it was probably more of a success than I originally thought.

Number of photos I took of said cooking preparation: 1

See above.

#bloggerfail

Amount of dollars I saved on my cable bill by visiting the Cox store and layin' down the law: $60

Number of Bravo shows I watched On Demand: 6

Number of bags of microwave popcorn I ate: 3

...ahem, two of which were in one sitting

Number of times I saw Catching Fire: 0

...time got away from me. Because you can clearly tell by all of the above, that I was super busy. 

Or just super lame and didn't make time for Catching Fire. Probably the latter.

#bloggerfail

Number of PAC 12 South Championships won: 1

Source

It was a good weekend to be a Sun Devil.

 Source

Next week we play our in-state rivals in the Territorial Cup for both bragging rights, and home-field advantage for the PAC12 Championship game.

Go Sundevils!!

When You Can't Avoid it Anymore...

Here's the thing about work-out blogs, or even blogging about working out in general,

I can't lie, I'm kind of annoyed by them.

Like, I get it,  you work out, I'm happy for you.

You're healthier than me, good for you. 

Today's leg day, how exciting! And tomorrow's ab day?! Super stoked for you!

Now, there are workout blogs and posts about working out that are helpful, and resourceful, and inspiring, and not written in an I'm-better-than-you tone, so if you're one of those...keep it up girlfriend!

But for me, if ever I get on a workout kick, I'm more of a low-key, keep it to myself kind of girl (unless of course it's aerial yoga because how do you not share something like that?).

That's why I had to think twice when Sarah was offering a link-up to share workouts, goals, tips, tricks, progress, motivation, and accountability. 

So after avoiding working out and eating healthy on a consistent basis for...let's just say, a long time...I figured this was the perfect avenue to keep me motivated and accountable!

So, here's how I'm gonna git 'er done:

- Pilates

I lost about 10 lbs. in high school and crap-ton more inches using the Mari Windsor Pilates program (I'm a sucker for infomercials), and since then, I've never had as much success with anything else as I did with Pilates. So I'm gonna throw it back to what I know works for me, and a time in my life when I felt good about myself and was active, and I'm hoping it'll bring some good ju-ju my way! 

- Yoga

I was a gymnast for 11 years and a cheerleader for 6 through my senior year in high school, so I was always active, strong, and limber. 

These days, I sit at a desk in a cube for 8 hours a day, then come home and sit at another computer (or on the couch) for another 4 hours and blog, Pin, watch recorded shows, etc.

Guys, my body aches because I'm so sedentary. I hate the feeling of stiff, tight muscles. It's a terrible feeling. So I'm going to enlist the help of yoga to increase my flexibility (and strength) and to help me feel good all-around. 

- Groupon

I don't have a gym membership and have no intentions of paying for one. BUT you can usually find Groupons for various fitness classes that are usually offered as a 1-month unlimited package. So, if I find Groupons roughly every month-ish, it's still cheaper than a gym membership and gives me variety in my workouts.

It's a win-win, I feel like.

- Pinterest

I usually avoid Pinterest because quite frankly, it makes me feel inadequate as a human being, but Pinterest can be such a valuable resource for workouts, recipes, healthy living tips, and more. So, I'm just going to have to get over my Pinterest anxiety and instead, use it to my advantage in my fitness journey! 

Ultimately, I just want to feel good right now. I don't have any specific weight-loss goals, I might get there after the holidays, but for starting out, I simply just want my body to feel better, and be more active. And I can't wait to share in everyone's journey's and meet new bloggers!

Thanks, Sarah for putting this together!