Summer Flew By!

So, after another long hiatus, I am back to blogging. Over the last 4 months I have had a wonderful summer and although I haven't found time to blog, I sure have done plenty of blog reading! The engaged life has been going wonderfully! Summer vacations included Ocean City, and our upcoming "Staycation." Let not get too excited at once now...

I graduated my Contracts Intern program July 31, 2010 and have become an official Navy employee, GS-12 equivalent. I still enjoy the work, and the increase in pay has been great! (Although somehow I still manage to spend it ALL).

I have been doing wedding planning, including thoughts about the ceremony being held overlooking the water at David's parents house, or also at a nearby park indoor/outdoor rustic pavillion on a beautiful peice of land.

Although it is basically an old barn, it is reasonably priced, and can be dressed up really beautifully. Other options we have thought about are doing a hotel wedding so that guests can stay the night in the place of the reception, or david's favorite- going to Vegas and gettin hitched in the lil chapel by none other than Elvis himself.

Still the same on the health front. I have been going to the gym, and started running again now that the weather is turning nice. We had a hot hot summer and I spent more time in the gym than I would have liked. I started a new class called Sweatshop, and it is KILLER. The instructor says she can see a difference in my legs already. Sample of class (after 45 minutes of non stop jumping and kicking and jumping jacks and squats and jumping squats and lunges), "whew I am getting pretty tired myself, God look at all this sweat on the floor around me! Ok *looks at clock* lets just do 200 more squats then we'll be done." Gaaahhhhh. These classes are what keeps me going back though, because David sure hasn't been my workout partner at all! At most, I get him to walk to the park with me to play frisbee some days, and I make it an extra workout by making him throw it to me while I'm sprinting for it.

While I have been doing good exercise wise, I just can't keep my fingers out of the cereal, and now ice cream, at night! I do so good tracking my portions throughout the day, but then am hungry at night! I am experimenting with saving a snack for after-dinner so that I can work in an appropriate dessert. Unfortunately that means either a smaller lunch, smaller dinner, or no afternoon snack... again, Gaaahhhhhh.

Either way, this means I have some exciting posts to catch up on, exciting recipes to share, and more things to come! Glad to be back!

Spring Balcony Gardens

I sooo got the spring itch... and then ran to Lowes garden section and bought the most beautiful shade-loving plants I could find! One of my favorite things abotu spring and summer is that david and I can now use the balcony. I started it's spring makeover by buying new cushions and pillows for our blue plastic chairs from Kohls. The cushions are striped with blue, orange, and other bright colors, and the pillows are the same color scheme but with fish pattern. My Mammy also bought me a cute little planter/dish of two pelicans snuggling that goes with the nautical theme! I also bought a little blue fish candle holder from Yankee Candle for a work fundraiser that has yet to arrive. With all the new decorations and flowers, the balcony is my fav place!

Oh and Cake likes it too...

Other springtime adventures have included taking a trip to WV, and picnics on Solomon's Island Rec area. David's parents took us to Lansing, WV to stay in a cabin and go zip-lining through a tree canopy tour and white-water rafting down the New River Gorge! It was a great trip. We stayed in a nice cabin with a jacuzzi and had a total blast!

IT WAS GORGE-OUS! LOL

White-water rafting was such an awesome adventure, I think I am addicted!  The water was pretty cold this time of year, and the water was high from all the snow melt off the mountains. We needed wetsuits and jackets for the trip. But all this didn't stop me from jumping out of the raft into the 50 degree water as soon as our river guide mentioned "once in a lifetime experience."  After body surfing down some rapids, the coldness of the water kicked in and I scrambled to swim back to the raft. Meanwhile, David, not be outdone by me had jumped into the water as well and had floated away about 100 ft from the raft! Poor guy had to float- freezing his butt- off until we were able to paddle over to him and pull him in. My arms were so cold and shocked from the water that I could hardly help paddle the raft to him, so I can't imagine how he was feeling having to float there waiting for us!

Well I am going bowling today at work for 'employee appreciation day'- gotta love it!

TIKI BAR OPENING is next weekend so I am sure I'll have pics!

I got ENGAGED!

Wow, I can't believe it's been since Christmas since I last updated... between work and school and homelife I kind of ran out of time. But spring is here and I don't have school and I am enjoying life... being engaged! Yep! David popped the questions on our 1 year anniversary on St. Patricks Day. It was a dream come true, I can still replay it all in my head. I think the pictures speak for themselves...

I cried my eyes out with joy that night, and I still get all giddy and excited inside when I think about him and dream about our life together. But before we got engaged... we had a furry baby!

Welcome to Cake our bad nice annoying adorable kitten!

Ok so start expecting more pictures and updates and healthy recipes and workouts and stuff to come!

xoxoxoxoxoxo