Wife

Probably 6 months ago I challenged myself to write my own definition of what it means to be a wife. I chose to do this for many reasons and those reasons are probably why it has taken me this long to write it. I want to write this because I believe my chosen path in life is different from the typical one and I feel I need my own definition of “wife” to continue living a fulfilling life.

To start a little background might be needed as I don’t think I have ever really written anything about my path to where I am now. I was raised to be extremely independent and a hard core feminist. Growing up I was not popular, never wore makeup, and didn’t have much confidence in myself or my body. My Dad has always told me that I was naturally pretty and did not need to wear makeup or dress a certain way. I have always taken this to heart. In high school I dressed in a way that hid my body. During college I started dressing in a more “flattering” way, but always in a way that showed respect to my body and beauty. I have never worn makeup on a daily basis and when I do it is to accent my natural beauty. The next person to come into my life and influence who I am is my husband. From the very beginning he has shown me more respect than any guy my age. As we went down the path of our relationship he constantly worked to help me out of the walls I had built around myself. He has helped me to become who I am today. Through this he has not changed who I am at my core but helped me to realize what I really want out of life and what society is telling me to do. Through him I have come to realize that I can be both a feminist and a wife. I have begun seeing that society’s idea of what a wife is does not have to apply to me.

The other part of this is the culture of where I grew up versus where I became an adult. I grew up in an area where most people were concerned with their career and living life to its fullest. Few people worried about finding a partner, getting married, and settling down to have kids. I grew up with the expectation that if I got married it wouldn’t be until I was at least 30. I went to college in South Dakota where I was frequently asked if I was going to school for my Mrs. degree. Most of the females I went to school with got married within 3 months of graduation. I am choosing what I consider to be the best of both worlds, marry my best friend young and live life to its fullest.

Maybe a better word for what I consider myself is companion. I want to be by J’s side through the thick and thin. I want to be standing next to him when we summit Everest. I want to be with him when he gets promotions at work. On the other side I expect him to be beside me when I win my first triathlon and finish my first marathon. I want him to him to be next to me when I start my own business. For me J is my ever reliable companion. I want him to be the person that will always be there through all of the triumphs and failures in life. For me wife means companion and it can take on many different forms. I find myself happy in both the traditional role as homemaker and his companion on crazy adventures. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 11

Something Blue

I had a really hard time getting my camera to focus today. This is a cool sticker I got from the First Ascent Airstream last night. I dream of the day I can buy First Ascent cloths for all of my adventures. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 10

Childhood Memory

The day we went to see the Warren Miller film just so happened to coincide with the childhood memory prompt. I have been going to this movie for as long as I can remember. It is considered the start to the ski season. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 9

Someone You Love

I chose to take a picture of Jason in a place I consider to be kind of magical, Pearl Street.

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 8

A Bad Habit

I have a very bad habit of starting something and not finishing it. Here is about 10 un-finished cleaning projects. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 7

Fruit

Not the best picture of fruit. I was trying to do a bokeh effect, but could not get my little camera to do it. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 6

From a Low Angle

This is a very old chime my mom has out front of her house. I thought it would look cool to take a picture of it laying on my back. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 5

From A High Angle

I stood on the fence and took a picture of my mom looking down. The full body shots make it look like her legs are facing backwards. While this makes for a humorous picture it doesn't make for a very flattering picture of her. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 4

Something Green

Honeymoon - The Drive To The California

This is the first of five posts on our honeymoon that we took in June. We got married last year and spent almost a year planning a two week road trip. We drove 8,000 miles through 8 states. 

We left South Dakota and drove to Colorado to celebrate my birthday with my family. My brother had turned 21 in May so we went to the bar and took shots as a family. My brother wanted to take a birthday cake shot, which is way to sweet for me and my dad. My dad decided to pay him back by ordering shots of tequila. Drinking with family is something I have always avoided, but I must say it was actually a lot of fun.


After the bar we headed to the mountains to sleep at a rest stop for the night. Our plan was to stop at the top of Vail Pass. When we got there it was 30 degrees out so we headed down to find a warmer place to sleep for the night. Thankfully there is another rest area just past Edwards where the temp was 60. 

Day 2 of our trip we went white water rafting down the Eagle River. There was so much snow last year that the river was extremely high and we weren't able to raft all the way to the normal take out point. We had a blast and plan on going many more times.

Once we were done with the rafting trip we were on our way to Ely, NV where we planned on spending the night at a friend’s. Driving through Utah was a lot more fun than we thought it was going to be. I'm pretty sure we stopped at every scenic spot, but I am so very glad we did. 

Since it was my birthday I really wanted a treat of some kind. The original plan was to stop in Grand Junction and get some yummy fruit. This turned out impossible. Who would have thought that buying fresh fruit in the place where most of the states fruit is grown would be impossible? Since we couldn’t find any fruit stands we continued on and planned on stopping in Utah somewhere. We stopped in the biggest town along the interstate and felt like we were in Radiator Springs. To get to the town you take an exit to no-where and drive for a little ways. There was a gas station at each end of the town and nothing in between. I got a popsicle and we continued on our way.

This was one of our favorite stops, the San Rafeal Reef. It was absolutely beautiful. Driving west through it blew our minds. I am really glad that I was able to show Jason how beautiful the desert is. I have always told him how amazing it is, but he never believed me. I’m pretty sure he thought it was more like Nevada where we went over 100 miles without seeing any other vehicles or buildings. Thankfully it was dark out, which made this part of the drive less painful.

We stopped in Ely, NV for the night.

 Day 3 was started with a drive threw a town that made us think we were in Mexico instead of Nevada and deciding how to get to Yosemite since the Tioga Pass was still buried under snow. The drive was beautiful to Lee Vining, California was beautiful. One part of the road was like a roller coaster. It was so much fun driving the truck over the little hills was one of the highlights of the day.

Once we got to Lee Vining we had to decide how to get through the mountains. After studying the map for ever we decided to take the Sonora Pass Hwy. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 3

Clouds

The clouds were too low for us to take the picture at my moms house. So we drove to the top of the hill and took some pictures at the dog park. I was talking to my sister in-law on the phone so I wasn't putting as much attention on my pictures as I usually do. This is the best one I got.

30 Day Photography Challeneg - Day 2

What you wore 

I decided that today was going to be a lazy day so I wore sweats. I tried to put up a good fight with the light, but in the end had to revert to using a flash. Without the flash the pictures were very orange. 

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 1

Self Portrait

My mom and I took a photography class and decided to do this challenge to practice. Day 1 was a self portrait. We both forgot our tripods and decided we still wanted to do true self portraits. It was really difficult to find places to put our camera's in the open space.

Mexican Chili

I am going to start posting the recipe's that the husband and I come up with.

Mexican Chili

(The picture is dark because my moms kitchen has terrible lighting)

1 can of Rotel
1 can of Chili Beans
1 can of Pinto Beans
1/2 can  to a whole can of Enchilada Sauce
1 can of corn
Chili Powder

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and cook until it has the consistency of Chili.

I don't have a picture at this time, but I will post one when I make this next.

Weight Loss Plan and Goals

I have decided to really work on losing my college weight. All those boxes of pasta-roni and liters of dew have added about 40 lbs to my body. I have been trying to lose the weight since i graduated about a year and a half ago with about zero luck. I have joined That Wife's second weight loss challenge. My weight goal is to lose 25% of my body weight by the end of the challenge (April 15th). I am going to make some "life" changes to help me with losing the weight and keeping it off.

1. I will run/bike 3 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Whether I run or bike will be determined by how my knee is feeling. If I run I will go out for 30 minutes. If I bike I will go out for at least an hour.

2. I will do some form of strength training on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday/Sunday. For the first 6 weeks I am going to be doing the 100 Push up Challenge. After I finish that I will start lifting weights.

3. I will limit my sugar intake (minus whole fresh fruit) to once a week. I have a really bad sweet tooth that I need to curb. If I am in a social setting where it would look rude if I didn't have dessert then I will allow myself to have it even if I have already used my weekly allowance of sugar.

4. I will limit my carb intake to whole grain/ whole wheat products. I will continue to eat sour dough in place of most of my bread intake.

5. I will only eat when I am hungry and take a picture of everything I eat. I will put all of my pictures in OneNote.

6. I will take measurements once a month. The body measurements will serve as another way to gauge my
success.

7. Always eat at the table. If I’m not hungry enough to eat at the table, I’m not hungry enough to eat.


8. I will reassess these goals at the end of November and change and adjust as needed.


I am hoping that by writing down my goals/changes that I will be better at sticking to them. The end goal is not so much weight loss as it is getting in shape so I have more self confidence and so I can do better next year in triathlons.

Goals For The Remainder of 2011

I have 6 years to complete my 30 by 30. I have decided that I need to make a plan for how I am going to get each goal completed. This post will be the first of many on my plan.

By the end of this year I would like to have:

• Read 2 classic books
• Volunteered for a race
• Climbed at least one 14ner

I think that is a manageable number of goals considering my current life situations (which I plan on trying to write a post on). 

Picture A Day - Day 30

This will be my last picture a day post. I plan on doing a wordless Wednesday post with pictures I take throughout the week. 

We finally got the back window of the car fixed. Now we just have to figure out how to get the ductape residue off. 

Picture A Day - Day 29

We went to Center Lake and lazed in the water. We went to target to buy tubes a few days before. 

The hubs choice. He got stuck in it. 

My choice. Very comfy.

Picture A Day - Day 28

Went to the last work picnic with the Hubs, car show, got over heated, and slept for about 14 hours. 

Picture A Day - Day 27

I had a major realization toady. All those frozen strawberries that my in-laws gave me can go into a smoothie. So I made a strawberry banana smoothie. I keep reading about people putting raw oats in different things, so I decided to put some in my smoothie. At first it was weird, but by the end I really enjoyed it. 

Picture A Day - Day 26

I am in love with Operation Beautiful. When I spent some time with a group of negative people the other day I decided to be pro-active and made a note to post in the bathroom. When I posted this note all the negative emotions went away. I felt like I could conquer the world. 

Picture A Day - Day 25

The hubs conked out. 

Picture A Day - Day 24

Oldy, but goody. This picture was taken after our sophmore year of college. With two friends we decided to go backpacking during finals week. It was a blast. 

Picture A Day - Day 23

Decided to go to the school to study. First time in over a year. It felt a little weird. Cold as usual.

Picture A Day - Day 22

I didn't take any pictures today so I decided to post a picture from my wedding. This is my mom and her sisters playing cornhole. Playing lawn games with family was one of the highlights of the day for me. 

Picture A Day - Day 21

One of the guys getting up on slalom. 

Picture A Day - Day 20

Spent another wonderful weekend at the lake. I got up on water ski's, but thankfully there is no evidence of it. 

Picture A Day - Day 19

The major difference between me and the hubs is our choice in drinks. At the bar he almost always has a beer, while I prefer to drink much lighter drinks. Tonight my choice was water. MM MM good. I really do love drinking water. 

Picture A Day - Day 18

Made iced mint green tea and drank it from my sweet new wine glass. Who does not love a fancy mason jar. 

Picture A Day - Day 17

Amazing lunch today. I had leftover steamed collard greens, pork, and bread from last night. I threw everything in a frying pan to heat it up. I made a sandwich out of the bread and pork. Slathered the bread in MMM Sauce. It was amazing. 

Picture A Day - Day 16

Hubs talking on the phone. 

Picture A Day - Day 15

My plants early in the summer. Before this heat showed up. We went downtown last night and it was still 100 at 8 pm.

Picture A Day - Day 14

I put my almond butter back in the food processor. It is much better not that it is uber smooth. 

Picture A Day - Day 13

The stud on a too hot day of rock climbing.

Picture A Day - Day 12

A not so yummy treat on a very hot day.

Picture A Day - Day 11

My favorite flower ever, a bluebell.