Mrs.Bliss

Goals, Resolutions, Challenges

2012-01-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

Another new year is upon us, and as you're well aware it's a time of making resolutions and challenging ourselves to be even more fabulous, together & hot in the year ahead.

This year, to be my best self I'm issuing the following challenges/goals:

Read 20 books (I'm loving my new Kindle from Mr.Buck so this should be an easy one)
Visit the grocery store no more than 2 times per week - and ideally only once! (this will require meal planning and stocking up on staples, but should save us some $$ {& calories!} in the process by forcing us to eat what we have on hand instead of running to the store for every whim)
Journal daily (another goal facilitated by a wonderful gift I received from my parents, the One Line a Day journal. I'm hoping this short & sweet format will keep me motivated to write down what's happening all year - and especially fun will be looking back in subsequent years)
Crossfit (or run) 4x per week (on average)
In general, focus more on cultivating friendships & time with family, savor this time in our lives & enjoy the ride!

Source: etsy.com via little. on Pinterest

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

Better late than never, I wish you all a wonderful New Year! We had a busy busy holiday season spending Christmas Eve with Mr. Buck's family, Christmas Day with mine, a friend's Boxing day party on the 26th, Dinner with family friends on the 28th, Dinner with our Dinner Group on the 29th and hosting a New Year's Eve party for 35 family and friends! Whew, it's been a whirlwind, but certainly a memorable and wonderful holiday season! We are so fortunate to have such an amazing and loving circle of friends and family, and I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us!

Source: designsponge.com via Elaine on Pinterest

Reason 52 why working from home is the best

2011-12-06T11:46:00.001-08:00

Just another of the many reasons I love working from home...I can move my "office" to the living room to enjoy the Christmas tree, festive decor and warm fire all day!

Does your job offer work from home flexibility? Would you do it if you could?

Christmas has come to the Buck home

2011-12-03T17:43:00.001-08:00

What a wonderful day! Slept in until 9:00am, had wonderful friends over for brunch, bought our Christmas tree from the local Boy Scout troop, decorated it while listening to Christmas music and now we're going out for dinner (sushi) with a Groupon that expires soon! After dinner I'm looking forward to snuggling on the couch in front of the fire with the mister and the pup!

I'm feeling very happy, very lucky and very content with my life. Despite the annoyances of the everyday and the stresses if work, it's days like this that remind me how fortunate I am. Bliss!

This little face says ...

2011-12-02T12:36:00.001-08:00

This little face is my daily reminder that I'm working to hard and need to take a few minutes to step away from the office (aka. our guest room) to get some fresh air.

"Pardon me ma'am but isn't it time for a break to play that delightful game of fetch?" (in my mind he speaks with a proper British accent...)

I know it is the holiday season when...

2011-12-02T12:29:00.001-08:00

I know the holidays are here when Trader Joe's brings back their seasonal Vanilla & Cinnamon Black tea! Warm, slightly spicy with the essence of holiday sweetness, it's my Christmas in a mug.

Must remember to stock up.

What are your seasonal favorites that fill your soul with the spirit of the holidays?

Bliss: Laughter

2011-08-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

If laughter really is the best medicine, then I'm cured for life!

Hello Weekend!!

2011-07-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

It's the weekend, Hooray! This week has felt like it has dragged on for far too long! I've been spinning my wheels with work - so many things to do that I feel like I can't get anything done! I need a long weekend to get away from my computer, decrompress & get a fresh start next week.

Cheers to a relaxing summer weekend! Enjoy!

Source: i693.photobucket.com via Pat on Pinterest

Happy Anniversary!

2011-06-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today I married my best friend and the most wonderful man I know. Happy anniversary babe, here's to many many more!

Magical!

2011-06-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

Crowdtap + Old Navy + Free Stuff = Get in on this!

2011-06-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I joined a site called Crowdtap which is a community where people are asked to share their opinions on a whole range of topics - essentially participating in market research surveys & polls. In return you can earn points towards gift cards & free stuff! It's a pretty cool site, doesn't take too much time to pop on and participate from time to time, and so far the benefits are pretty good - case in point:

Though the site I was selected to be part of a group of people who were given coupons for a free pair of active pants from Old Navy. They also gave me 3 extra coupons to share with friends who can also get a pair of free pants! So, I went in to Old Navy today, after having shopped online a bit to see what they had to offer, and was pleasantly surprised right from the start with the selection of pants and quality of product they had available. I was able to choose any pair of active pants I wanted and ended up going with their Compression Pants (straight fit) in Grey. As soon as I put these pants on I was hooked, they have a great spandexy/moisture wicking fabric, and actually true to their name do have some compression which makes me feel look great!

So, as soon as I got them home I put them on and spent the rest of the day wearing them while I worked at my computer. Then this evening I wore them to Crossfit. These pants stayed up, were not restricting, and felt great through 8.5 rounds of : 5 Hang Power Cleans, 5 Push Jerks and 10 Pullups!!

Post workout - still lookin good!

I'm super picky about my workout pants because the last thing I need when focusing on a WOD (Workout of the Day) is to be worrying about my pants falling down, or getting bunched up and producing unsightly muffin tops. These pants stayed in place & didn't weigh me down.

The unofficial uniform of Crossfit seems to be Lululemon - but for me I'm now just as happy in my $13 something (they were on sale from $29 something...but I got them for free) Old Navy pants!

If you're interested in getting in on the free-stuff and earning cash rewards action, check out Crowdtap.

P.S. since I knew I'd be shopping at Old Navy because of this Crowdtap freebie, I also bought the recent Old Navy Groupon and was able to score all of this stuff for just $10 (I paid $10 on Groupon and got a $20 store credit). Unfortunately the Old Navy people had a hard time figuring out how to redeem my Groupon - the process from my side of the register seemed unnecessarily complicated, but they were super nice & even gave me a $5 gift card to thank me for my patience as they figured it out!

(In the interest of full disclosure - yes, I was given these pants for free but under no obligation to review them on my blog, my opinions are my own. Also, if you click on the links to Crowdtap in this post, you'll be going through my referral link and I'll be given credit for anyone who signs up).

Monday Motivation

2011-06-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

Just a Monday morning reminder to NEVER GIVE UP!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

2011-05-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day Weekend friends!

Source: marthastewart.com via Donna on Pinterest

The sun is teasing us with it's presence, thought it's not forecasted to last long - and Mr. Buck and I are gearing up for a fun & relaxing weekend with friends!

Source: bhg.com via Janet on Pinterest

Wouldn't one of these wreaths be a fun way to welcome guests to our home for a festive Memorial Day (or 4th of July) BBQ? Just another wreath to add to my long list of decor I hope to get around to making one day!

Source: july.tipjunkie.com via Kathy on Pinterest

Have a wonderful weekend friends!

Tell your friends, tell your kids - I like vegetables!

2011-05-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

found c/o: The Clothes Make the Girl

DIY-able?

2011-05-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had to run to Target to pick up a few things - and I couldn't help taking a quick whirl through the women's dept to see if anything caught my eye.

I picked up this bracelet - but at $14.99 I decided to put it back down. It looks fairly straightforward...so I'm thinking I might try to make it. From what I can tell it's a long chain braided with a silk cord with enough length to wrap around my wrist 3 times.

What do you think - DYI able? Is buying the materials going to cost me as much as it would to just buy it from Target?

Monday Motivation

2011-05-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

Source: 9gag.com via Tyra on Pinterest

Phew, what a whirlwind of a weekend! Helping Mr. Buck pack, organize food & hit the road for a camping bachelor party, a surprise party that didn't work out (surprisee's flight was delayed several hours), cleaning, shopping, errands, laundry, baking, a bachelorette party, grocery shopping, read a whole book (Room), and hosted book club !

How was your weekend?

Summer Fun List

2011-05-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

Source: timetogetpaid.tumblr.com via Henry on Pinterest

The sun shone on Seattle today and now my mind is aflutter with ideas of summer activities, bbqs and lots of vitamin D.

Despite being super busy with work stuff (hoping to let you all in on what I've been up to shortly - business building in stealth mode right now) I want to make the most out of this summer, so I'm putting together a list of all the fun things I want to do to remind myself to get out there and have some fun too!

Camping trip(s) with friends
Wine tasting in Lake Chelan
Hike's with my pup & husband (Rattlesnake Ridge as well as new places)
Plan a fun weekend getaway with just the hubs for our wedding anniversary (3 years on June 29th - crazy!)
eat dinner outside on the deck as much as possible
grow veggies in my garden (semi-check already as I planted my raised bed last week - but so far not seeing much growth)
Take Gordie (the pup) to Marymoor off-leash dog park & teach him to swim
Happy Hour's outside on the patio
Enjoy a Mariner's game (major league baseball)
Enjoy a Rainier's game (minor league baseball)
Run a 5k to support a good cause

Any suggestions? What's on your summer fun list?

Monday Motivation

2011-05-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

Let's get this week started right!

Source: facebook.com via Christine on Pinterest

After a productive weekend of painting, caulking, re-grouting, switching out winter for summer wardrobes, attempting a sewing project...and failing at it, and generally cleaning and tidying - it's time for an equally productive week for the Bucks. The next few weekends are packed with fun stuff - so we've got to take advantage of all hours of the weekdays to make sure we can relax and enjoy!

What's on your to do list this week?

Working from home

2011-05-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

Working from home these past few months (wow, has it really been months since the end of January - this year is going so fast!) has lead me to dreaming about decorating our home office. Right now it's a bit of a random room with leftover furniture from our college days, and not much decor going for it. It's been seldom used until now, so I'm itching to put a more attractive touch on it...but that will have to wait a while longer - so I'll just browse these lovely images and fantasize about my airy, open, calm & beautiful office to (may)be.

Source: whimages.blogspot.com via Melanie on Pinterest

Source: decor8blog.com via Sophie on Pinterest

Source: 1st-home-interior.co.cc via Robyn on Pinterest

Source: chezlarsson.com via Diana on Pinterest

Source: housetohome.co.uk via Amy on Pinterest

Source: houzz.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: simplydecoration.com via John on Pinterest

Source: housetohome.co.uk via Radostina on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Tracy on Pinterest

Live the Language

2011-04-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

These videos brought a quick smile to my Friday morning. Oh to go traveling!

Found via: LaLa Lovely Things

Cupcake Vodka

2011-04-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

Mmmm...if I was a Vodka drinker, I think this would maybe be my new drink of choice, because really, who doesn't love cupcakes?

It's the Dad Life

2011-04-13T08:31:00.000-07:00

My cousin in Scotland posted this video on Facebook and I just had to share. It's totally about the American Dad, but I guess it rings true internationally.

New Blog: Eat, Play, Paleo

2011-04-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hello lovely followers,

I have an announcement - now before you go letting your imaginations wander, no I'm not pregnant.

Phew, now that we have that cleared up, I'm happy to announce that I've started a new blog to chronicle my adventures with the Paleo Diet.

If you're at all interested in learning more about Paleo nutrition and Crossfit, please come join me here: Eat, Play Paleo http://eatplaypaleo.blogspot.com

I'll still be blogging here, but it will focus less on diet/nutrition & more on life and fun finds, the fun stuff you're used to seeing here.

Thanks for sticking with me, I appreciate you all so much! If you do check out my Paleo blog - Eat, Play, Paleo, please leave a comment and let me know what you thinks - it's still a work in progress.

Weekend Dreaming

2011-04-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

Source: cocokelley.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Sunshine has teased us here in Seattle today, hinting at beautiful spring days to come! That makes any day better when you live with the grey most every day...but on a Friday with a hint of the possibility of a weekend of blue skies - not much is sweeter in my book. And despite the fact that I know it won't last and rain is on the horizon for the weekend, I'm dreaming of spending time outside, spring cleaning our yard, reading a good book, or even just throwing the ball for the pup.

Happy Weekend friends!

New York Loves Seattle

2011-03-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

and so do I! The New York Times recently ran an article on 36-hours in Seattle - and highlighted some awesome spots around the city. Even though I've lived here for about 12 years, this article reminds me that there's still so much to do and see, and eat! Sometimes it's good to remember to be a tourist in your own city. Thanks for the reminder NYT.

c/o: NewYorkTimes

Currently Coveting: FEED

2011-03-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

I came across this company & have been obsessively stalking their online store ever since! Their concept is similar to Tom's - you buy their product, and they make a donation to someone in need.

Plus, their inventory is adorable!

Charity + Shopping = Love!

Monday Motivation

2011-03-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

This week I'm focusing on getting back on track with eating Paleo. We've had too many slips over the past 2 weekends. Monday's are always good for starting with a clean slate. What are you focusing on this week?

Source: health-girl.tumblr.com via Emily on Pinterest

Inspiring TED Speaker

2011-03-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure where I heard about this TED speech, but I finally took the time to watch it, and was so inspired. Never could I imagine myself being so calm, collected and eloquent on such a stage - I totally admire this woman. Her words are very moving and I love the concept of what she's teaching. If you have time, it's worth a viewing. Enjoy!

300 Years in 300 Seconds

2011-03-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

It's good to remember where we've come from, so we can figure out where we're going...

May the Luck o' the Irish be with you today!

2011-03-17T08:33:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Source: stylemepretty.com via Vinogradnaya on Pinterest

Monday Morning Motivation

2011-03-07T07:29:00.000-08:00

Source: etsy.com via MrsBuck on Pinterest

This & That

2011-03-05T14:13:00.000-08:00

A list - as there's no cohesive theme for my post today:

thank you for those who expressed interest in the Paleo lifestyle I wrote about in my last post. I'll try to capture some images of some typical meals and favorite recipes and share more soon.

Last week I visited both a Chiropractor and a Podiatrist for the first time. Hoping for some relief from both some lower back pain as well as some food pain I've had lingering for a while. Since turning 28 it seems I'm falling apart!

So that brings us to today: I'm sitting at the ski lodge at Snoqualmie where I should be spending the day skiing with my husband, but instead I'm sitting inside alternating heat/ice on my lower back and spending the day in front of my computer catching up on work and the blog world. We volunteered to help out with a ski school up here for a couple of weeks (something we've done for several years) so I'm stuck here for the day.

Luckily, tonight we're looking forward to having a few friends over for dinner and drinks at our place, should be a good time!

So, that was a whole lot of nothing interesting, so if you've made it this far I'll reward you with a fun picture of a hairy cow. I love Highland Cows - must be my Scottish heritage coming through.

Source: beautyineverything.com via MrsBuck on Pinterest

I Eat Like a Caveman

2011-03-03T08:42:00.001-08:00

I've mentioned once or twice on this blog that Mr.Buck and I have adopted a new eating lifestyle called Paleo. I thought I should probably explain myself, especially because after trying this out hard-core for the month of February, we're thinking that this meal plan really works for us and plan to continue for a long time to come (with some deviations from strict adherence here and there - I'll get into that in a minute).

Paleo in a nutshell is the philosophy of eating as our paleolithic ancestors did - meat, vegetables, some nuts & seeds and little fruit. We exclude processed foods, grains, legumes, rice, dairy (some debate here), sugar, etc.

It might sound extreme, but once you give it a shot, the rewards really pay off! Here's a short clip of a story Nighline did on Paleo a couple of days ago.

We were introduced to this diet by our Crossfit gym, and you really can't argue with a whole bunch of people who eat this way and are some of the fittest people I've ever met - and not just fit like ripped - but toned, svelte and sleek looking. So we gave it a shot for the recommended 30 day intro period with strict adherence (meat, veg, nuts, fruit only). Giving up bread & pasta were hard, but harder still I found was giving up milk in my coffee, cheese and wine! But, we stuck with it and saw some results. We both lost weight (though not a lot) but I can see in both of us that our body composition is starting to change.

Our gym is also starting a Paleo Challenge this Sunday, so we decided to give ourselves a bit of a break last night and went out for pizza and ice cream (and a glass of wine for me & beer for Mr. Buck). I'm not going to lie, it was epic - so delicious. But we paid for it afterward...we both came home and pretty much went straight to bed with icky feeling tummies. So, we're back on plan today and looking forward to sticking with it for the March Paleo Challenge (though I've decided this month to allow myself a drop of milk in my coffee, cheese in extreme moderation, wine socially and in moderation and a bite of really dark chocolate (85% or higher) when the sweet cravings really take over). These modifications would be frowned upon by strict Paleo followers, but I do feel that I have to live my life and enjoy some of the finer things. Many Paleo followers who've adopted this lifestyle long-term talk about the 80/20 principle as the best way to maintain health for the long run (cause let's be real, home-made bread, greek yogurt, alcohol - sometimes you've just gotta live a little!). 80/20 is basically: 80% strict adherence, 20% allowing foods you enjoy or which are nutritious but still not technically Paleo, I'll be monitoring how my body responds to adding these things back in and make changes as necessary.

Despite all of our friends thinking we're crazy & joining some kind of cult, Mr. Buck and I are both liking this journey & seeing what we can really do with our bodies if we give it our all. We've both tried calorie restriction & plans like Weight Watchers in the past, with some success. But right now this seems to be working for us, so we'll keep going!

If any of you have any questions or want to know more, please feel free to comment here or email me: mrs.blissblog (at) gmail.com.

Also, here are an amazing array of resources I've found which provide more information on the scientific arguments for this way of eating, as well as tons of recipes, etc.

To get us started we read this book: The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf (check out Robb Himself introducing the book here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m29KMZX74LRX3C/ref=ent_fb_link )

This is one of the best posts I've found which succinctly & clearly lays out why some people want to eat this way - and how to do it - a great starting point especially if you don't want to get overwhelmed at first with all of the scientific data in the books: http://www.fitbomb.com/p/why-i-eat-paleo.html

Here are some blogs that I follow for information & recipes:

http://www.primal-palate.com/

http://nomnompaleo.com/
http://www.balancedbites.com/
http://cfscceat.blogspot.com/
http://cosmopolitanprimalgirl.wordpress.com/
http://memorable-meals.blogspot.com/
http://everydaypaleo.com/
http://www.foodrenegade.com/
http://jensgonepaleo.blogspot.com/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
http://paleo4health.blogspot.com/
http://blog.modernpaleo.com/
http://paleoblocks.blogspot.com/
http://paleodietlifestyle.com/
http://paleogirls.com/
http://robbwolf.com/
http://whatsinwhatyoueat.org/

What do you think?

Currently Coveting:

2011-02-20T11:52:00.000-08:00

Purple & Gold Toms (Just like my beloved UW Huskies)? Yes please!

Source: toms.com via MrsBuck on Pinterest

Friday I'm in Love

2011-02-18T12:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday my friends! We've got a great weekend planned which includes Crossfit, visiting the local farmer's market, birthday/president's day festivities and lots of relaxing.

I don't know about you, but this week has flown by! Time to decompress and spend some time with my boys (Mr. Buck & the G-doggy).

Have a wonderful weekend!

Source: ohjoy.blogs.com via Suzette on Pinterest

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

images (and free sticker download) c/o: Twig & Thistle

Isn't this the cutest idea for your fruit basket on Valentine's day? Or to pack with your love's lunch as you send them off to work for the day?

Mr.Buck and I are celebrating in a very low key way this year - as we tend to do every year. The thought of going out to a restaurant on this day of the year kind of makes my skin crawl, so we opt to stay in and cook a delicious dinner for ourselves and relax and enjoy eachother's company.

How do you celebrate the day? Any traditions?

We usually do a fondue at home, but this year we're on a strict 30 day Paleo introduction, so the Peanut oil we usually use to cook our fondue meats/veg is out! Instead we'll be feasting on grilled chicken w/artichokes with a big ol side of grilled veggies. So far we're loving Paleo, so I'll post more on that later.

For now, just popping by to wish you all a Valentine's day filled with love!

Feelin the love

2011-01-26T11:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, yesterday was a great kick-off to my 28th year! I felt so much love all day

c/o: Etsy

Mr.Buck took me to happy hour at Anthony's in Gig Harbor which is right on the water and we had some delicious apps and wine. Then he took me to a new restaurant we hadn't tried before called Il Lucano. Lucky for us it was half-price bottle of wine night, so we enjoyed more wine and more delicious food. I had the seafood stew, and tried out their gluten-free bread which was actually really good. To top off all of the glutony we went to Dairy Queen for dessert.

The tradition in my family all while I was growing up was to get a DQ Ice cream cake for our birthdays. Well the Mr. and I didnt need a whole cake all to ourselves so we just got a blizzard and a Peanut Buster Parfait.

Ugh, everything was so delicious - but I definately went to bed with a stomach ache! It was totally worth it.

Mr. Buck and I went to bed and were all set to fall asleep when he realized he hadn't given me my gift yet - which was funny because he'd been hinting about it all evening, but when we actually got home we both forgot all about it!

So he jumped out of bed and went to the garage and came back with a gigantic box wrapped in a towel - hahaha.

So I pulled off the towel to reveal a Keurig coffee brewing system. Mr.Buck and I have never owned a coffee maker of any kind, and it's only recently that we've started drinking coffee. I'm super excited to bust this bad boy open and start drinking delicious home brewed drinks!

Throughout the day I received so many happy birthday messages and could totally feel the love from all those around me. What a wonderful Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-01-25T08:52:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday! What a wonderful year it's been. Today I awoke excited and eagerly looking forward to the adventures my 28th year will hold for me. I'm leading a blessed life and am so thankful for the people who continue to love, inspire, motivate and teach me.

c/o: Lost in Decoration

Looking forward to celebrating this evening with my amazing husband!

Monday Motto: Kill your TV

2011-01-17T14:29:00.000-08:00

c/o: Etsy

This print has such great life lessons/messages/reminders. "Kill your TV" particularly resonates with me as Mr. Buck and I recently canceled our Comcast cable subscription. We're now limited to what we can get via antenna (and the added luxury of Netflix streaming & Hulu.com). We did this for 2 reasons, to save money and to spend less time watching TV. I thought it would be more difficult than it has been to give up on our favorite shows. Instead I'm actually enjoying feeling more productive with my time - working on sewing and knitting projects, reading, and just in general being more proactive with my time around the house.

That said, I'm also excited by opportunities to visit my friends and watch some of our guilty pleasures via their cable.

Has anyone else cut the cord and given up their cable tv?

Nothing is Impossible

2011-01-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

c/o: Style Your Life

Beautiful words to live by

Wreath Year

2011-01-14T15:00:00.000-08:00

Taking down the Christmas decorations always seems like such a somber activity. Last to go at our house is always the wreath. Wreaths just add such a welcoming and festive feel to the front of a home. So, this year I'm trying to keep more of a festive spirit adorning our front door all year round. There are so many cute wreaths on display around the blogosphere, I'm attempting to recreate some of my favorites. After our DIY Christmas wreath, our front door is currently sporting this beauty because this month is birthday month in the Buck household.


c/o: How Does She?

Next up: variations on these two to carry us through spring and fall

c/o: Design*Sponge

c/o: Blogher

Or, if we keep building up our wine cork collection - perhaps one like this!

c/o: Flickr

Craft store here I come!

Singing in the New Year

2011-01-13T14:57:00.000-08:00

On January 2nd some girlfriends and I went to the Sound of Music Sing-along at the 5th Avenue theater here in Seattle.

Everyone who loves this movie, loves to sing along - so what better way to celebrate your love for the film than by getting together with a couple hundred fellow fans to sing, dance, dress-up and celebrate this great film.

Here's a quick video that shows you more what it's all about.

A sight to see for sure!

Aggression Cookies

2011-01-12T14:39:00.000-08:00

I made these cookies for our New Year's party because I was trying to use up some oatmeal and sugar in our house. Despite having very few ingredients, they turned out pretty deliciously - and they would make a great base for adding more deliciousness in the form of chocolate chips, raisins, cranberries or whatever your heart desires.

Beware - you're going to get messy - but as the name says, these are a great cookie for making when you need to work out some aggression.

The cookies are adapted from this recipe I found on AllRecipes.com

Ingredients

6 cups rolled oats
3 cups packed brown sugar (light or dark, or a split of both)
1.5cups butter (softened)
1.5 cups unsweetened applesauce
3 cups whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
Granulated sugar (for rolling cookies)

Directions

Put ingredients together in a bowl.
Then mash, knead, and squeeze with hands until there aren't any lumps of butter. Form into small balls and roll in granulated sugar. Put on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, do not flatten.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on cookie rack.

Rain, rain go away, instead I'd like some snow today!

2011-01-11T14:54:00.000-08:00

c/o: Flickr

They are forecasting snow for the Seattle area this week and despite the fact that our city seems to entirely grind to a halt when it snows, I'm secretly super excited about the prospect of beautiful trees covered with snow, chimneys smoking and puppy's prancing in the white stuff.

Your turn, do you love or hate the snow?

A Monday Morning Funny

2011-01-10T10:53:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Mr. Buck

2011-01-05T16:01:00.000-08:00


c/o: Sweet Designs

Another year older and never been better! Yesterday was Mr.Buck's birthday. We celebrated by doing a few of his favorite things: sushi followed by ice cream, after a great Crossfit workout of course, and presents!

I got Mr.Buck a massage from a local spa, and splatter guards for our pans - I see lots of bacon in our future!

Welcome 2011

2011-01-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

image c/o: hello-naomi

Welcome 2011!

You're gearing up to be an exciting and busy year! To keep myself grounded, here are a few of my goals for the year:

be present in the moment
no Blackberry in the bedroom
foster healthful eating habits (Paleo) & continue kicking butt at Crossfit
Read more books
Watch less TV
Learn to use my sewing machine (beyond the basic stitch)
Learn to use my camera (beyond the automatic setting)
Nurture family and friend relationships
Take the business world by storm (aka. keep rockin' my career)

What are your goals for a happy and successful 2011?

New Year's Eve

2010-12-31T23:59:00.000-08:00


image c/o: Design*Sponge

Happy New Year's Eve to my friends, family and fellow blogettes! Enjoy and be safe!

Love,
Mrs. Buck

Thank you 2010

2010-12-31T14:27:00.000-08:00

image c/o: thenotebookdoodles

2010 has been a great year for the Buck household.

We jumpstarted the year by celebrating Hogmanay (Scottish New Years Celebration) in Glasgow, Scotland and traveled from there to France.
Our travels this year also included Lake Chelan, camping in various places in Washington and a vacation in sunny Hawaii
We got our puppy Gordie who has enriched our lives so much
We are both thankful for our jobs which have provided so well for us
We've been blessed with wonderful family and friendships to sustain our souls through the year

Thank you 2010, you've been a great year!

Getting into the Sewing of Things

2010-12-30T14:13:00.000-08:00

image c/o: clare owen illustration

Mr. Buck thoughtfully got me a sewing machine for Christmas, and I was like a kid - opening it up and taking it all out, and immediately wanting to play with it.

So far I've only made what I thought was going to be an easy project, a baby blanket. But it did not turn out very well. Any of you have a sewing machine and have any tips or resources for getting started?

Found her Voice

2010-12-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

image c/o: zanarkand

My niece Abby, who is 2 years old, is starting to really find her voice. In addition to a bursting vocabulary, she's also started singing.

Just before Christmas she composed her first song which goes something like this "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaatch AAbbyyyyyyyy SiiiiiiinnnnnngggggggiiiiiinnnnnnGGG! YAY!" and then claps and looks around to make sure we're all cheering - so cute!

Holiday Round-Up

2010-12-28T14:11:00.000-08:00

image c/o: oh my dear handmades

Mr. Buck and I are so fortunate to have our immediate families so close. We had a wonderful holiday weekend visiting Mr. Buck's parents and sister, brother-in-law and niece for Christmas eve and then driving about an hour back to Seattle on Christmas morning to spend Christmas day with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend.

We were spoiled with many wonderful gifts from both sides of the family, and particularly enjoyed seeing the delight on the faces of the recipients of the gifts we handed out this year as well.

It was also so fun having a child in the mix to celebrate Christmas. My niece is just over 2 years old, and really started to grasp the idea of Santa and Christmas.

In an effort to keep the holiday going as long as possible, we didn't open our gifts to each other until we returned home on Christmas evening. I was so excited to unwrap a brand new sewing machine from Mr. Buck and set to work the very next day creating my first project - which turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I made a baby blanket, but somehow in the process of cutting the 2 sides of the fabric to the same size I cut right through the middle of one side. Some creative stitching/mending was needed - and my grand idea of giving the blanket to my brother's girlfriend's brother's girlfriend who is pregnant flew right out the window. Oh well, gotta start somewhere, right?)

Mr. Buck is also quite pleased with the gift I got him (a Philips Wake up Light).

image c/o: Amazon

Unfortunately, all of the celebrating, drinking and lots of eating took a toll on our health and both Mr. Buck and I have come down with a bit of a cold. We're taking it easy now in order to get back to health to be ready to celebrate New Years Eve! We're hosting a laid-back but festive party at our place this year :-)

If you're feeling the post-holiday blues - fear not

2010-12-27T13:29:00.001-08:00

If you're feeling the post-holiday blues, fear not! For there is this lovely video to cheer you up.

Made my day!

Merry Christmas from the Bucks

2010-12-24T09:33:00.000-08:00

Now that the Christmas cards are sent, gifts wrapped, cookies baked and the holiday's begun, it's time to relax and enjoy this time with family and friends.

Thank you to all of my readers for your support and comments through the year - blogging wouldn't be the same without you! I'm going to try to be a better blogger come 2011, the past few months have really been lacking in this blog, and I appreciate those of you who've stuck with me (are there maybe 3?).

I wish you all the best, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays! Enjoy!

Love,
Mrs.Buck

Getting into the spirit

2010-12-15T14:33:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a poor job of keeping up with this blog lately, and regretfully so. I've had a lot on my mind as my job and career are a bit up in the air right now and I'm considering a few different options. But all that is fodder for another post once I can get my head wrapped around what my job will look like come Jan 1st - but for now know that the options are all exciting!

Last night I was able to get together with some friends to relax and enjoy the holiday spirit. Our usual Thursday night dinner group got together for the girls to make wreaths and the boys had a "man-date" in the basement to watch Sherlock.

Here's the product of my efforts!

hanging on the front door


a closer up shot

Hawaiian Vacation: aka. did you know the hawaiian alphabet only has 12 letters?

2010-11-27T19:40:00.000-08:00

Prior to Thanksgiving Mr.Buck and I spent a week in Hawaii. We had planned this trip around a friend's destination wedding (in which I was a bridesmaid), which unfortunately didn't end up happening. It was very sad to learn (only after we were already in Hawaii) that the wedding had been called off, and our hearts go out to the couple and their families as they work through this time.

View from the pool at our hotel on the North Shore of Oahu

Luckily, Mr.Buck and I were still able to take some time to enjoy Hawaii and relax! We spent the first half of the week on the North Shore of Oahu which we loved for it's laid back surfer vibe, and non-touristy atmosphere. We had rented a car and spent almost every day driving to new beaches and exploring the island. We found the most amazing local restaurant, Ted's Bakery on our very first day, and ate there at least once a day for the remainder of our time on the North Shore.

Mr.Buck enjoying shave ice from Aoki's

Baby pineapple growing at the Dole plantation

Byodo-In Temple

Coconut I found on some random beach

For the second half of our trip, we had planned to be in Waikiki for the wedding, but with that called off we had some more free time to enjoy. Unfortunately, we both really didnt like Waikiki - it's like the Vegas strip, huge high-rise hotels everywhere, a Coach store on every block, tour busses full of tourists, everywhere, shopping malls at every turn, and huge chain restaurants dominate the eating scene. If that's what you're into, then great, but we much preferred the laid back and relaxed side of Hawaii more.

View of Diamond Head mountain from our hotel in Waikiki (on the 15th floor!)

Luckily, the hotel we were staying at (Outrigger Reef) was right on the beach and we were able to get an ocean-front room, so when we were in our room or down by the pool & beach we could try to forget the craziness that was happening outside.

The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed many long hours laying on the beach reading, talking and relaxing. We also took a trip to a nearby beach, Hanauma Bay, for some excellent snorkeling (thanks Mike & Mer for the ride!).

Despite our flight home being delayed 6 hours and arriving back in Seattle at 4:00am on Monday morning, our travels were fairly smooth. And of course, the day we arrived home it snowed in Seattle (which is something our city is never prepared for) so it was a bit of a shock to the system to go from 85 degrees and sunny to 25 degrees and snowy.

But, nonetheless we were fortunate to be able to go to Hawaii, and the snow did help me transition right back into holiday mode.

Aloha!

Thankful Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T19:08:00.000-08:00

Mr.Buck and I are fortunate to have our immediate family members living in close proximity, so we were excited to host Thanksgiving for both sides of our family this year (his parents, his sister and her husband and 2 year old daughter, my parents, and my brother and his girlfriend). We hosted two years ago as well and thought it worked out so well we'd give it another shot. Luckily all of the weekly dinner group parties we've hosted over the past couple of years have proven that hosting dinner for 10 can be no sweat.

image c/o: Etsy Item of the Day

We were also fortunate that all of our guests insisted on pitching in to provide most of the food -all we were responsible for was a couple of appetizers (deviled eggs and procuitto wrapped asparagus), brussels sprouts and the green bean casserole!

We failed at picture taking this year, despite my mental note to try to get a picture of the family all together - so I have no photographic proof of how well it all went - but memories aplenty.

Here's a rundown of the recipes I used:

Savory Deviled Eggs
Procuitto wrapped Asparagus: trim asparagus spears and toss with olive oil and salt/pepper, roast in oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes (until tender and crowns start to crisp). Let cool. Wrap with procuitto.
Green Bean Casserole

A delicious and happy thanksgiving was shared by all!

Thankful on this Day

2010-11-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

Veteran's Day is a day of rememberance and thanks. I am so thankful for all of the veterans who have served and continue to serve our country. We are forever indebted to you.

Mr. Buck and I also have fond memories of this day for other reasons. When I moved to London for a year Mr. Buck and I were dating, and had been for almost 3 years. I had been given the chance to relocate abroad and jumped at the chance, and thought I was sure Mr. Buck and I could make the long distance thing work, I still missed him! Luckily, we had the fortune of being able to travel back/forth to visit quite a bit and on Veteran's Day (about a week after I had moved to London) Mr. Buck was able to come for the first of many visits.

Here's the email he sent me this morning reminiscing - it was so sweet I just had to post it here so I'd always have it.

Mrs. Buck

It occurred to me that today is Veterans Day. It then occurred to me that today is Armistice Day. Four years ago I arrived in London at 6am after (what seemed to be) 24 hours of travelling wearing a giant backpack and nice first-class clothes and found your place and woke you up.

Four years ago you were slapping me to keep me awake through the afternoon. Then you made me go on a walk, and we saw fireworks while crossing the Millennium bridge. That was one of the best days of my life -- the start of a extended trip that made us both fall in love with that city. I didn't know the tube map by heart. I didn't even know the Imperial War Museum existed! What a difference a few years makes.

And it was my first Thanksgiving since my accident (minus the one at the hospital), at the pub with you. Anyway, I just thought I would reminisce for a bit. It is nice to have a holiday to celebrate the beginning of what was one of the greatest months of my life.

Happy Armistice Day.

Mr. Buck

Speak with Conviction!

2010-11-10T13:19:00.001-08:00

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Fatty Finances

2010-11-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

As a participant in The Bloggers' Book Club I had the opportunity to read Susan Hirshman's book "Does This Make My Assets Look Fat" a book about personal finance written specifically for women.

Mr. Buck and I do not always stick to traditional gender roles in our relationship (i.e. he often cooks and cleans, I'm a heavy contributor to our family income, etc), but one area where I was content to let him take on the traditional role of decision maker is with regards to our finances. Mr.Buck controls our investment portfolio, pays the bills, etc. I keep the budget, but all the heavy hitting as far as mutual funds, stocks, other investments and planning for our future falls to Mr.Buck.

This book was a bit of a wake up call for me with it's message of financial empowerment for all women. Young, old, single, married, divorced, etc - all women should be at least a 50/50 partner in their finances. We as women should know where our family's money is, how to access it, and understand how it's being invested and the risk/reward quotient associated with those investments.

There have also been many a financial discussion in our household as of late as Mr.Buck and I are both potentially in transition periods with our jobs, and a discussion of potential future children is a topic broached frequently (no, no plans for kids yet, we're still a few years from that - so don't get excited!). As I was reading this book, and in the period since, I've made a concerted effort to be more of a contributor to the conversation - better understanding our investment portfolio and discussing our financial goals with Mr.Buck (ie. investing in land as a hunting/camping property vs. saving that money for potential future kids or emergency, etc). The book deals a lot with making sure you set goals for yourselves, and then take a real look at which of those goals are achievable with your current finances, and which would require a shift in priorities. Saving vs. investing vs. spending is a personal choice that is different for everyone, so it's not about what your friends are doing, but about what you (and your partner as applicable) want for yourselves and your future.

While this wasn't the most exciting book I've ever read (no drama, no love story, no real entertainment factor, etc) it was one of the more important books I've read lately, and one I'm glad I now have on my bookshelf to refer to periodically down the road as our finances, family, goals change.

How involved are you in your family's finances? What are some of your financial goals?

As a member of The Bloggers' Book Club, I received a copy of this book.

Mumford & Sons @ The Paramount Theater Seattle

2010-10-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

Yep, we were there!

Mumford blew my mind last night! A couple of months ago I surprised Mr.Buck with tickets to see this band. The concert sold out almost immediately and they actually ended up switching venues are re-opening ticket sales because there was so much demand.

The concert was amazing, the sound even better live than on their CD and Mr.Buck and I sang along to every word!

Thank you Mumford & Sons for coming to Seattle!!

Sorority Book Club: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2010-10-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

c/o: Amazon

Our book club met last night at Carol's place for our second book club meeting. The discussion, food and company were all great! Carol warmed our bellies with the Pioneer Woman's Mac & Cheese and ooh was it delicious!

Carol also tracked down some really interesting discussion questions for us which was great. The question I found most interesting was about how the title of the Swedish version of this book is "Men who hate women". Which title do you think is more fitting? There was some great points generated about whether people felt one title was better than the other - and whether you would be interested in reading the book if it had the original title.

Overall we all gave the book a rating of between 3-4 on a scale of 5.

What I found most shocking about the book is how many people really really like this book, given that it can be very gruesome, disturbing and dark. Many of our mothers are reading or have read the book, and really enjoyed it. I'm somewhat surprised that a book dealing with such dark themes has become so popular.

For those of you who have read it, did you find this shocking as well? Would you have chosen to read the book if they had stuck with the original title?

Falling for Fall

2010-10-18T13:59:00.001-07:00

Falling with grace, originally uploaded by Memotions.

I must admit, a few weeks ago when the blogosphere was running rampant with comments about "I can't wait for fall" and "I'm so ready for the cool weather" - I was confused and slightly annoyed. I was still waiting for SUMMER to really come to the pacific northwest. I was still feeling like we never had a nice long stretch of good weather.

But over the past week I've busted out some of the fall decor and picked up a few new items, and I must say I'm really starting to get into the spirit. Plus it helps that the weather here has been beautiful, blue skies and cool crisp temperatures!

So, I'm finally jumping on the bandwagon and welcoming fall with open arms. Plus it doesn't hurt that there are recipes like "Pumpkin Bread Pudding" to warm my tummy too!

What's you favorite fall recipe?

Seven

2010-10-11T14:40:00.001-07:00

{7-365} Seventy times Seven, originally uploaded by Dee'lite.

As of 10/10/10 Mr.Buck and I have been together for SEVEN years!! I cannot believe how much we've grown and experienced since that first kiss in the closet of his fraternity bedroom seven years ago.

We've graduated college, both had several job changes, survived his train accident, lived in different countries while maintaining our relationship long-distance, gotten engaged, moved in together, bought a house, gotten married and are now raising a puppy and loving the last 2 years of married life.

Wow, how time flies!

Demonstrating Strength

2010-10-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

On Seth Godin's Blog he posted this entry about demonstrating strength - and it really resonated with me - so I thought I'd share it here.

Demonstrating strength

Apologize
Defer to others
Avoid shortcuts
Tell the truth
Offer kindness
Seek alliances
Volunteer to take the short straw
Choose the long-term, sacrificing the short
Demonstrate respect to all, not just the obviously strong
Share credit and be public in your gratitude
Risking the appearance of weakness takes strength. And the market knows it.

Blast from the Past

2010-10-07T11:11:00.001-07:00

friendship, originally uploaded by tinou bao.

On Monday evening I had the pleasure of reconnecting with 2 of my friends from my previous life when I lived in Minnesota. My family moved out to the Seattle area almost 14 years ago - and prior to that I had lived in Minnesota for almost all of my life (moved to MN from Canada when I was 2, and spent the year I was in 4th grade living in Holland with my family).

It was totally a random encounter - I saw on Facebook that these friends were visiting the Pacific North West and would be in Seattle for a couple of days, so I made contact for the first time in probably 10+ years and casually mentioned that we should get together for a drink (or coffee...in true Seattle fashion).

They wrote back and agreed to meet for a drink. Admittedly, at this point I was nervous. Catching up with someone you haven't really talked to since middle-school!?

But, in the end, it was so great to see them and get caught up on each others lives. We had great conversations, laughs, and I got the scoop on how all of my old friends are doing. I wish I had kept in better touch with them, but hopefully now that we've had this chance to connect, we'll make an effort to stay in touch.

Are you good at keeping in touch with friends you haven't seen in a while? How do you keep the lines of communication open?

Hard Row to Hoe

2010-10-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

One of my most favorite Washington wineries is located in the Lake Chelan area - which, given the fact that I've been there 4 times now in the past year - you can imagine I'm slightly obsessed with this part of our state (evidence here ).

On our latest trip I made a special point of making it abundantly clear that our trip to Chelan would not be complete without a trip to this winery called Hard Row to Hoe.

I'm a sucker for a good marketing campaign, and what could be better than a winery themed around a famous brothel that used to be run in this area? All the wines have themed names "Shameless Hussy", "Naughty Boy", "Miss de Miner" and "Iron Bed Red" the decor is very brothel-esque...all the way down to their wallpaper which includes some less than fully-clothed silhouettes, and they never hesitate to regale visitors with the story of how the workers from the Dam being built in the area would row themselves across the lake to get to this brothel.

I know they say that you shouldn't buy a bottle of wine for the label, but I can vouch for this wine - it's delicious! In fact, I'm contemplating cracking open a bottle right now!

Check out their website for more information about the background and their wines!

Cheers to the weekend!

A San Francisco Quickie

2010-09-29T15:00:00.001-07:00

san francisco map, originally uploaded by brad.coy.

Monday morning bright and early my entire cohort of Seattle co-workers headed down to our San Francisco headquarters for an all-company meeting. The company meeting of our 35 or so employees turned out to be an announcement that we'd been acquired by one of the largest companies in our industry! The next day and a half were a whirlwind of announcements, questions, celebrations, and more questions. I'm still trying to take it all in, but I'm very proud of our little start-up and can't wait to see what comes next!

Gone Ducky

2010-09-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week we had a company outing to Ride the Duck in Seattle! It was a blast, but words do not do the trip justice, so here are the highlights:

Our driver, Mrs. Helen Wheels

Hammer time

Cool lookin food truck

Driving into the water

Crabbing boats - like the show Deadliest Catch

in the middle of this picture right on the water is a blue house - that's the Sleepless in Seattle house!

I highly recommend the Duck tour if you ever have the chance to do the touristy thing in Seattle!

Sorority Book Club: Heart of the Matter

2010-09-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday marked the first meeting of a book club some girls from my sorority have started (including a few fellow bloggers: Michelle and Carol).

We read "Heart of the Matter" by Emily Griffin for our first meeting.

c/o: Emily Griffin

Overall the consensus seemed to be that we weren't huge fans of the book. All of the characters, in my opinion, were selfish, naive and rubbed me the wrong way. This is the first Emily Griffin book I've read, but I hear that all of her books cener around some type of adultery - and this story was no exception. I thought that there may be more debate around character flaws between the marrieds and non-marrieds in our group, but we all seemed to be on the same page.

Luckily the food and wine were delicious!

Next we'll be reading "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson

c/o: Stieg Larsson

Have you read either of these books? What did you think?

I'm really looking forward to getting started on Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - it seems that everywhere I turn someone is talking (and raving) about this series!

Camping for Foodies Follow-up

2010-09-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

First: an announcement - I've reached 100 followers!! Woohoo! Thank you all for joining me on this journey. I really appreciate all of your comments and bloggy love! I believe I'm following all of you back - but if not, let me know and I'll be sure to come follow you as well.

Second: a thank you

Thank you all for your great comments on my Camping for Foodies post! I've since been camping twice, and thought I'd share a few of my favorite recipe finds.

Several people mentioned throwing some things together in tin foil and letting it roast over the fire - sounds delish! I found this recipe for roasted stuffed peppers which fit the tin-foil mold and it was delicious. I made the whole thing ahead of time so all we had to do when it was time for dinner was open the cooler and plop the tin-foil packs on the grate over the fire.

image and recipe c/o: Dirty Gourmet

While we're on the topic, you should totally check out Dirty Gourmet, its a blog entirely dedicated to camping for foodies!

After our roasted stuffed pepper appetizer, I busted out this Tomato Feta Pasta Salad from Ina Garten. Again I made everything beforehand - I had all of the pasta, feta, veggies, etc in a big bowl with a lid, then when it was time for dinner I poured on the dressing and the extra parmesan and parsley and poof, delicious pasta salad ready to go!

image and recipe c/o: Food Network

To go along with the pasta salad, we also grilled up these awesome Summer Feta Burgers with Gourmet Cheese Spread. Again, I made these entirely ahead of time, and even formed them into patties. I stored them wrapped in wax paper so they wouldnt stick together and when it came time to cook we could just turn them out onto the grill with relatively little mess.

image and recipe c/o: AllRecipes

For our camping trip this past weekend we went a little more low-key, but I still brought the pasta salad because it was so delicious I couldnt resist another excuse to make it!

I also brought Buffalo Chicken Dip to munch on (so good on celery and Baked Scoops).

We also brought a bag of raw/peeled shrimp marinating in some italian salad dressing (seriously that's it, just shrimp and dump in some salad dressing). I had planned to skewer the shrimp and cook them on the grill, but we ended up just dumping the bag into a skillet over the fire. They cooked so fast that they got a bit over cooked, but I know from doing this at home that if you skewer them and put them ont he grill for just a couple of minutes on each side they are delicious!

So there you have it, thank you again for all of your camping food feedback. One of the benefits of car camping is that you have room to haul all of this stuff over to the site - if we were backpacking it would be a different story...but we haven't gotten that intense yet, thankfully!

Let me know if you try out any of these recipes for your Labor Day festivities!

shrimp skewers

Current Musical Obsession: Mumford & Sons

2010-09-01T17:32:00.000-07:00

check them out here: Mumford & Sons

A Moral Dilemma: Matters of Money

2010-08-31T17:45:00.000-07:00

Recently I was confronted with an interesting moral dilemma...I've since handled it the way I felt made the most sense for me - but thought it might be interesting to run the scenario past you all to see what you think...

c/o: Flickr

Scene: Pay Day (bonus or commission pay day to be exact)
Players: You and the Finance department at your employer

Act 1: You receive payment direct deposited into your account. You also receive an email which contains a breakdown of the commission/bonus you were paid. (ie. based on hitting what metrics or making which sales).

Act 2: few days (scratch that...a week or so later) you get around to opening said breakdown spreadsheet to review. You find that you were in fact paid MORE than you were due. (I.E. credited for a sale you didn't make, hitting a metric you actually missed, or a simple miscalculation). For arguments sake let's say the over payment was $500 (Note - this is not the actual value of any potentially related real life scenarios which may or may not have happened to me recently)

Do You?

1. act like you never saw the breakdown, allow the money to remain in your account and go about your life as usual?

2. report the over payment to the finance team and accept that the difference will likely be taken out of a future paycheck?

Chances are, unless you report it, no one would ever notice the discrepancy, and who couldn't use a few extra bucks these days?

So, I pose this question to you - what would you do? would your actions be different if the amount of money had changed? I.E. if it was only $50 or $100 bucks? What if it was $1000? $2000? or More?

You all may or may not feel comfortable commenting here - but I thought it might be an interesting question to think about. What would you do? How would you handle the scenario?

I've talked about this with some friends, and even some co-workers - and opinions are all over the place - so if you want to, let me know what you would do (which may or may not be what you think is the morally correct thing to do). We won't judge :-)

Baking from Abundance

2010-08-30T17:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening I was being lazy and felt the need to do something productive - so I went out to my garden to see what was going on there. I noticed that we had an abundance zucchinis ready to be plucked, so I gathered two of them and came inside with an idea to make some type of zucchini bread for the week. I went to one of my favorite go-to recipe sites allrecipes.com and found this wonderful recipe. I whipped up a batch which came out to 18 muffins and between yesterday and today I've already eaten 4 of them! I've posted the recipe below - with a few of the additions/changes that I made highlighted in purple.

c/o: allrecipes.com

Nicole's Winter Carrot Zucchini Bread

(or Muffins)

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
6 egg whites
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup grated unpeeled zucchini
1 cup grated carrot
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans (note: I used walnuts instead because that's what we had on hand)
**1/2 cup flax seed meal ** This is not in the original recipe, but I bought a bag of Flax Seed Meal and wanted to try incorporating it into more of the food we make. It turned out delicious!

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with non-stick spray.

Note: I decided to make muffins instead (easier portion control...) I sprayed a 12 muffin tin with non-stick spray and filled each cup about 3/4 of the way full - maybe even a little more. For making muffins, they only needed 22 minutes in the oven.

Sift together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in a large bowl until well blended.
Beat egg whites with a mixer until light and frothy. Stir in applesauce, brown sugar, zucchini, carrots, and vanilla until well combined. Mix in the raisins and pecans. Add the flour mixture, stirring just until blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 20 minutes.(**See above, if making muffins they only need 22 minutes**) Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes, then remove, and cool completely on a wire rack.

Camping for Foodies

2010-08-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

Camping is one of Mr.Buck and I's favorite summertime activities. We're headed camping this weekend with 2 other couples for what's sure to be a very fun trip full of games, wine, smores, laughter and good food. As with most of our favorite activities, food plays a big part in what we think about when we think camping.

c/o: Flickr

I'm in charge of a few meals for the group, and I'm trying to come up with a few great camping recipes. I'll be cooking up dinner for 6 on Friday, lunch for 6 on Saturday - and probably distributing lunch for 4 on Sunday for the road. I'm thinking sandwiches and hotdogs for lunches, but would like to come up with a couple of side dishes as well - maybe a salad and a pasta salad?

And for dinner on Friday I'm thinking about grilling some type of meat accompanied by a side dish or two.

I always like to get as much of the prep taken care of beforehand at home as I can to cut down on all the kitchen tools we need to take out there - and I find it generally saves space too. Plus it's just easier and I'm all about easy when it comes to camping - we car-camp for goodness sake!

c/o: Flickr

So, here's my call to action. Do any of you have great go-to portable camping recipes? A great marinade for chicken or beef to throw on the grill? A delicious pasta salad that gets better when the flavors meld for 24 hours? What are your favorite foods to take camping?

Thanks so much for any help!

As you are all aware...it's Monday

2010-08-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

As you are all aware...it's Monday. And my weekend was very miscellaneous - so what better way to re-cap than with Miscellany Monday! It's fun and you can join in over at lowercase letters.

Friday Mr.Buck and I went to a Luau his fraternity was hosting for their national convention. It was held at the fraternity house, so it was fun to go back and remember all the time we spent there when we were in college. Unfortunately my drinking habits also may have regressed to my college days, let's just say - I was having fun!

Somehow despite the Luau festivities I was somehow able to get up just in time to make it to Crossfit at noon. It's a good thing because that evening...

***

The gals from my Thursday nigh dinner group and I tried out a new restaurant we'd heard good things about. The respective husbands of these ladies are all from Mr.Buck's fraternity - so they had more festivities to attend that evening. The restaurant is call The Stumbling Goat and it was DELICIOUS! Everything was so so good, and they focus on fresh, simple and local food. We'll definately be going back!

****

Sunday Morning we woke up and went to brunch with my brother and his girlfriend. They crashed at our house on Saturday night because his girlfriend's brother was having a surprise party in Seattle so they needed a place to crash afterward. We went to a restaurant in our neighborhood which allows dogs inside so Gordie got to join us for breakfast!

*****

Sunday afternoon we went to a Mariner's game with one of Mr.Buck's friends (another guy from the fraternity) who got tickets through his work - hooray for free tickets, and hooray for the Mariner's actually winning a game!

******

With all the late nights this weekend we nearned a new Gordie trick. He usually wakes us up sometime between 6:00am and 8:00am because he needs to go out. Well on Saturday morning neither of us were ready to begin our day - so we let him out and then brought him into bed with us. Despite some wandering around and getting settled, he actually fell back asleep and we were all able to sleep in until about 10:00am. We did the same thing again on Sunday morning, so it wasn't just a fluke. Halelujah, we can actually sleep in again on the weekends!

So, it was a random weekend, but packed full of fun with friends. I hope you all had a great weekend as well. Happy Monday!

Fill in the blank Friday

2010-08-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone!

I saw this series of Fill in the blank Friday questions over at The Little Things We Do and thought it would be fun to join in!

1. Today for breakfast I ate a grapefruit followed by a delicious breakfast scramble that Mr.Buck cooked up for me. I love when we both get to work from home on Fridays!

2. My go to/never fail recipe Pasta Salad with Arugula and Goat Cheese - found here .

3. Something I eat that other people think is weird is I like cream-cheese on my hamburgers (along with the standard ketchup, mustard, etc .

4. My worst cooking disaster ever was when I attempted to make my own hamburger buns for a 4th of July party we hosted, and ended up burning the bottoms of the buns to the pans. So we ate hamburgers made with only bun tops! .

5. If I could only eat one flavor of ice cream the rest of my life it would be Honey Lavender from Molly Moon's Ice Cream Shop - delish! .

6. One food I hate and avoid at all costs is cilantro - hate!

7. What is your favorite meal? Breakfast, lunch, or dinner? I love to eat, period. So it's hard to choose just one, but I guess I'd go with dinner because for me dinner can be such a social event as well as just about eating. I love a nice relaxing long dinner with good friends and good wine

Happy Friday!

Have you ever seen anything cuter?

2010-08-05T17:33:00.000-07:00

I swear - have you ever seen anything cuter? Wait, don't answer that. Let me live in my dream world where nothing is cuter than my little puppy. Ok? Thanks!

Ok, let's snap back to reality. Thank you all for your comments on my post about the dog training and bell ringing to go outside. No further progress has been made in Gordie learning that he can ring the bell all by himself when he wants to go outside. We're still making him nose it when we take him out, but he's only once gone to the bell by himself - which I think was an accident - but of course we took him out anyways.

Lots of you mentioned that your dogs use the bell to their advantage and ring it anytime or all the time when they want to go out even if it's just to play. I thought that might be a disadvantage to this method...so we'll see how it goes.

Thanks again for all of your comments!

Now, if someone could just come over and show me how to work my camera so I get more pictures like the top one, and less like this one below that'd be just fabulous.

With Bells On

2010-08-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure everyone knows (or can imagine), potty training a puppy is not the easiest task to complete. We've been making huge strides in cutting down on the number of inside accidents, but we're still not all the way there. One problem I've noticed is that Gordie really hasn't figured out a way to tell us that he needs to go. Often in my experience dogs will come up with some type of signal to let their humans know they've got to do their business (sitting/barking by the door, picking up their leash, or my parents' dog walks in circles around the dining room table until someone notices). Gordie hasn't decided on a way to tell us he's feeling the urge, so I did some looking online and found some information about training your dog to ring a bell to get your attention. I thought this might work pretty well for us because if Gordie were to go sit by the front door we may not notice...as the main floor of our house is on the second floor, and the front door is on the first - down a flight of stairs. So I decided to get a little crafty and make a bell we could hang in the house to start training him that this was a good way to get our attention when he needed to go out.

Here's what I used:

Two ribbons (one slightly wider than the other)
Spray adhesive
Needle
Thread
3 bells
scissors
Lighter

First I took a rough measurement with the ribbon of how long it needed to be to hand it from a door knob (or in this case a surround sound speaker hung on the wall behind our couch where the bell will hang).

I cut the ribbon to the desired length and then used the lighter to just barely melt the ends of the strands so that they would not continue to unravel.

Then, I sewed the 3 bells onto one end of the thinner ribbon about 2 inches apart

Then I used the spray adhesive to attach the thinner ribbon (dog paws) to the thicker one (green)

**Note: I've decided that I really dislike spray adhesive. It's pretty messy and gets everywhere. I also thought about it a bit more and think that in making this again I would recommend sewing the two ribbons together - would be much less messy, probably look cuter and be healthier for the puppy. If the dog gets very interested in the bells and decides to use it as a chew toy I'd hate for the glue chemicals to be ingested. Maybe if I decide to invest in my own sewing machine I'll re-do this one and update the tutorial.

Once the two ribbons are glued together, loop them so that you can hang them from something and glue the two ends together

Then you should have something roughly like this!

Like I said, this is hanging from a speaker on the wall behind our couch - on the other side of the wall is the staircase leading downstairs to the front door.

We're making Gordie hit the bell with his nose each time we take him outside so that he begins to associate the two. We've only been working on this for a couple of days, so he still doesn't quite understand that he can hit the bell when he wants to - instead of just when we tell him to - but I do think he's starting to associate the two! I'll keep you posted on whether this technique works.

Home Improvement 101

2010-07-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

Continuing on the home improvement vein I talked about yesterday I thought I'd highlight a recent renovation Mr.Buck completed recently. Turns out there are one or two things we can take care of around the house.

Let's back up, Mr.Buck and I were fortunate enough (and knew enough about ourselves) to buy our first home brand new. What this meant for us is that there was little to nothing that would need renovating/changing/painting/upgrading! Perhaps we traded more space and a yard in the suburbs for something smaller with virtually no yard in the city, but for us given our current status in life (no kids, attracted to the city lights and activity) it was a trade we felt best suited for us.

that said, Mr.Buck recently completed his first major home improvement project - and I couldn't be prouder!

We took this lame gravel pathway beside our front door from this:

To This!

So much nicer for walking on - much easier for throwing the puppy outside first thing in the morning or last thing at night to "do his business" without having to mess with shoes and all the junk he tracks into the house, no more gravel spilling over into the grass, and in my opinion, it's just much nicer to look at! Well done Mr. Buck!

This was a bit of a practice project for us as we're thinking about paving a larger area of what little yard we have. See that grassy area? It's about a 6'x6' square and we have the same patch of grass on the other side of the doorway as well (where I'm standing when I took this bottom picture). We'd love to have a little outside space to sit and enjoy a drink on nice evenings, or to spend some time outside with the puppy without having to leash him, so we're considering putting down paving stones so we could get some patio furniture and maybe put up a small fence and have our own outdoor living space. So the walkway was good practice, and I think a bit more difficult than we imagined as far as getting everything level. But all in all it was a success!

There are still no imminent plans for the outdoor living space/patio project, but we're still considering...the options are, go ahead with it DIY, maybe get someone in to help, or say forget it...too much work and/or money for what we'll get out of it.

Decisions, decisions...

Home Improvement for Dummies

2010-07-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

We've now lived in our home for just over 2 years, and we're starting to need a little help. I read so many wonderful blogs from people who have beautiful homes, are fixing up older homes, and who are DIY and design gurus - so I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I have virtually zero home improvement skills to speak of.

Throw a recipe in front of me I can bake/cook it.

Throw a bottle of wine in front of me, I can drink it.

Throw a fairly basic craft in front of me with little to no creativity needed, I can make it.

But throw a house in front of me and I'm pretty much at a loss.

image c/o: Flickr

So here I am declaring, I need help! Judge me as you see fit.

Help Needed:

Cleaning lady: up until now Mr.Buck and I have been keeping up with most of the everyday cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, etc. but we've gotten to the point where the house is overdue for a good deep spring cleaning, and I can think of about a million things I'd rather spend my time doing...so we're looking into bringing someone in to give the house a good once over (and I'm secretly planning to audition them for an ongoing cleaning gig - I'm thinking once a month)
The seal on our freezer has gone so we're getting a repair man in to fix that (something neither Mr.Buck nor I know how to do)
Sunday we're having a guy come to clean our windows inside and out. This is both out of laziness (see point 1) and necessity (see point 2). I have neither the desire nor the comfort with heights to clean our 3rd floor outside windows. So of course, why not just have the guy do all the windows!
We're also considering hiring someone to re-finish our deck. It's a tiny little deck (only room for a small table for two plus a grill) on the second story of our house - but we've actually now had it sealed twice in 2 years and it needs it again. Both times it's been professionally done, the first time when the builder had it done as part of the construction of the house and the second time when we made them come back to fix it just before our 1 year warranty on the house was up. If the pros can't get it right twice, how are we two novices to have any hope of getting that wood sealed up tight? (again a mixture of we just don't want to do it, and we have never done it before and don't really know what we're doing)

Mr.Buck and I both work very hard, so when it comes to weekends/after work we tend to want to spend our time enjoying ourselves, instead of stressing over home improvement. I envy folks who enjoy DIY home projects and have the capacity to undertake these types of endeavors, but it's just not me. Luckily we're also in a position where we can make the financials for hiring this type of help work as well. I'm sure that if it came right down to it, we could do a lot of this on our own if we couldn't afford the help. I'd like to justify this to myself by thinking that we're helping to support the economy, but I guess that's just something you tell yourself to help you feel better when you're spending money.

Either way, that's where we're at.

Do all of you amazing women do everything yourselves? What help do you justify spending the money for? Am I alone in my lack of DIY capabilities?

Oh, Suga Suga

2010-07-28T17:55:00.000-07:00

Confession: I don't consider myself to be especially savvy when it comes to make-up and facial skin care, in fact, I'd say I'm pretty much a stick to the basics kind of gal. For example, my make-up routine consists of a little powder followed by bronzer (and maybe a little blush if I'm feeling fancy), one Mac eyeshadow (Jest) that I wear every single day, and maybe a swipe of chapstick (or gloss if I'm going out). That's it!

My eyebrow care has also always been fairly basic. I can count on one hand the number of times i've tamed the beasts with waxing - and I generally hobble-by with tweezing myself at home.

That said, I took a leap yesterday and went and got my eyebrows sugared! Sounds sweet, right? Well it totally is!

Sugaring is rising in popularity as an alternative to waxing and I found a salon on Yelp near my house which was very highly rated so I thought I'd give it a shot. After doing some searching online to learn a bit more about sugaring, I found that it's a totally natural and sanitary procedure which some claim to be less painful than waxing. The sugaring wax is made of just 3 ingredients: Sugar, lemon juice and water. You could eat it if you wanted to. The technicians make a wax ball only the size they will need for whatever procedure you're having done, so there's no double dipping or chance of cross-contimination with sugar from someone else's procedure! They apply the sugar wax opposite of standard waxing as well - so it seems a bit strange but they apply the sugar mixture against the grain of the hair growth, and then pull it out in the direction the hair grows which they claim prevents breakage and helps pull the hair fully from the root. With this procedure the results are supposed to last up to 3 weeks.

image c/o: The Sweet Spot

Sounds like all good things to me so off I went to get my eyebrow hairs ripped out en mass.

In my experience the procedure went very well. The technician was very knowledgeable and time efficient. It maybe hurt slightly less than waxing, but not extremely significantly, there was virtually no redness when I walked out of the salon and today my eyebrows are looking perfect! Overall I would highly recommend looking into Sugaring if you have a place in your area. I think I'll be going back on a more regular basis.

Do any of you sugar instead of waxing/shaving/plucking?

For larger areas of the body (legs, underarms, bikini) which method of hair removal do you prefer?

You can also find 8 reasons why sugar is superior to waxing here.

Cheers to your health

2010-07-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

image c/o: Flickr

If there's one thing I appreciate on a hot summer's evening, after a long day at work (besides coming home to Mr.Buck and Gordie of course) it's a perfectly chilled glass of white wine! As we speak I may ~~or may not~~ be enjoying my second glass of a $5.99 Viognier from Trader Joe's - and loving every sip.

And to top it off, CNN tells me that this indulgence may also good for me and is linked to a lower risk for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Yes please, I will take another glass!

Photography 101

2010-07-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

I've been messing around with our new DSLR camera (the Pentax K-x) and trying to take lots of pictures to get a handle on how this fancy thing works. Unfortunately, 99% of my pictures are still shot in automatic mode...but I've been trying my hand at manipulating some of the settings myself and reading several blogs with photography tips.

Here are a few of my favorite resources I've found so far. For any of your DSLR experts out there, do you have blog posts with tips that you could point me to?

Here are a few of my favorite shots so far (random shots that haven't made it into other blog posts)

The Space Needle from Volunteer Park (Mr.Buck took this picture)

Can you spot the bumble bee?

Chester - Mr.Buck's parent's dog

Enjoying a roll in the grass

Kobe - Mr.Buck's parent's cat

Kobe prefers rolling in the dirt

Miscellany Monday

2010-07-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

Monday has reared its head again - so it's time for another installment of Micscellany Monday! This is a great way to get some random thoughts and updates out of my head after the weekend, so I'm linking up over at Lowercase Letters. Feel free to join the fun!

I've turned a corner with this summer cold and am starting to feel like I can be functional again - Hooray! I've got a bit of a lingering cough and some sinus pressure, but feeling soooo much better!

Unfortunately, Mr.Buck seems to be coming down with my illness - I'm hoping it doesn't hit him as hard as it did me!

***

Having a new puppy in the house is teaching us many things: patience, responsibility, discipline, and most of all - that we're not yet ready to start having babies!

****

I need to find fun activities in Seattle for Mr.Buck and I to do that do not revolve around going out to eat. We try very hard to be healthy during the week, but come the weekend when we're looking to get out of the house and explore, you can inevitably find us tracking down a culinary adventure (which is more often than not - not healthy!)

*****

Tomorrow is my second down and back in a day trip - this time to Los Angeles. 6:00am flight down, 8:30pm flight back for approximately 11 hours on the ground in LA. It'll be a whirlwind!

*****

My friend Tara and I are taking a sewing class, learning how to use a sewing machine and making a shopping tote along the way. Wednesday will be the second and final class in the series and I'm excited to see our bags come to life! Luckily I took sewing in some home-ec classes in middle school, so this was not my first time on a sewing machine (and we wung-it making aprons last year). Now I'm thinking I may need to look into investing in my own machine...but first I need to find some projects to add to my "to make" pile to justify the purchase. Any sewers out there have good resources for finding project ideas?

Happy Monday All!

Summer Gardening

2010-07-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

Last year Mr.Buck built me a raised bed to try my hand at growing some of our own produce. To everyone's surprise the garden was actually fairly successful and we enjoyed several zucchinis, many beans and handfulls of cherry tomatoes! So this year we decided to give it another shot, and try out some new veggies (and exclude some of the less successful ones).

Here's what it looked like when we planted in May:

And here's how we're doing today!

Surprise! There's a giant zucchini ready to eat!

Another zucchini ready to eat

Cauliflower

Lovely Lavender

Gordie inspecting the cauliflower plants

Gordie likes Zucchini (it's almost as big as him!)

a teeny tiny tomato

Anyone have any good zucchini or cauliflower recipes to share? We've got a lot of zucchini already, and it looks like we'll have cauliflower coming out our ears soon!

How are your gardens doing?

Quarantine

2010-07-16T17:14:00.001-07:00

Image, originally uploaded by Ү.

Most Fridays you'll find me posting about plans for the upcoming two days of freedom and wishing you all a happy weekend! But this weekend Mr.Buck and I are basically quarantined at home both fighting off some type of head cold/ sore throat/achy bug (I'm in the throws of it, he seems to be just coming down with it). Please wish us a speedy recovery! It's vitamin c, lots of meds and lots of rest for us this weekend!

For all you healthy gals out there - have a great weekend!

Miscellany Monday

2010-07-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

Monday strikes again!

Here are some random musings to recap my weekend:

1. The first email I sent this morning was to my husband, and focused almost exclusively on the bodily functions of our puppy (poo, pee and puke). Goooooood Morning Husband!

2. This weekend we started our first major DIY home project. We're tearing out some of our yard and making an outdoor patio. I use the term We loosely as Mr.Buck is really doing all the work, I've just had input into layout and decor.

3. I'm trying to take this blogging thing a bit more seriously - and this weekend I tried my hand at creating a blog button - voila!

Copy and Paste Code

Pretty rudimentary, but very proud of myself for figuring it out. And thank you Mama Kat for the tutorial!

4. Tomorrow I'm day tripping to Portland, OR for work. Trying to mentally prepare myself for 6 or so hours in the car by myself. Much snack prep and ipod updating will be necessary this evening

5. The garden is starting to grow! We've got 2 green baby tomatoes, and one or two teeny tiny zucchini - sun, please come back to help my food fulfill it's purpose!

Cheers to the start of a great week!

Bocce, Bocce Bo Bocce, Me Mi Mo Mocce, Bocce!

2010-07-11T21:23:00.001-07:00

Bocce Ball, originally uploaded by Panther1619.

Bocce is one of our favorite summer activities and though we don't own our own set (nor do we have a big enough yard) - we're always quick to take our friends the Nash's up on a game when we're together. We have modified the rules to fit our own needs, and always play with a drink in one hand and the other free for throwing the ball.

Accoring to WIkipedia here's how the game should be played:

Rules and play

Bocce is traditionally played on natural soil or asphalt courts approximately 20 to 27 metres in length and 2.5 to 4 metres wide, sometimes with wooden boards of approximately 15 centimetres in height surrounding the court. Bocce balls can be made of metal[8] or various kinds of plastic. Unlike lawn bowls, bocce balls are spherical and have no inbuilt bias.
Red scores 2 points

A game can be conducted between two players, or two teams of two or four. A match is started by a randomly chosen side being given the opportunity to throw a smaller ball, the jack (called a pallino, or a boccino in some areas), from one end of the court into a zone about 5 metres in length, ending 2 metres from the far end of the court. If they miss twice, the other team is awarded the opportunity to place the jack anywhere they choose within the prescribed zone.

The side that first attempted to place the jack is given the opportunity to bowl first. Once the first bowl has taken place, the other side has the opportunity to bowl. From then on, the side which does not have the ball closest to the jack has a chance to bowl, up until one side or the other has used their four balls. At that point, the other side bowls its remaining bocce balls. The team with the closest bocce ball to the jack is the only team that can score points in any frame. The scoring team receives one point for each of their balls that is closer to the jack than the closest ball of the other team. The length of a game varies by region, but is typically from 7 to 13 points.[9]

Players are permitted to throw the ball in the air using an underarm action. This is generally used to knock either the jack or another ball away to attain a more favourable position. Tactics can get quite complex when players have sufficient control over the bocce ball to throw or roll it accurately.
*******************************************

It's a great way to pass a fun and relaxing evening with good friends!

Jump, Jump, Jump

2010-07-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

At Crossfit we do a lot of jumping rope - double-unders (getting the rope under you twice in one jump) being the gold standard of jumping rope in this environment. That said, I've yet to achieve even one double unders, and am stuck making up the difference with single-unders.

These girls on the other hand can blow your mind with their jumping skills!

Happy Sunshiney Day!

2010-07-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

Today feels like the first day of summer in Seattle - we finally woke to blue skies and sunshine! It even rained on the 4th of July festivities here this weekend, so to say we're excited about the sun would be a vast understatement.

c/o: Flickr

But, the change in weather has left me thinking about the impact the sun has on our mood. I know, Vitamin D and all that jazz, but to me it seems that the sun (or lack thereof) impacts some of us more than others.

Mr. Buck is one who is severely impacted by a lack of sunshine, he's grouchy without it, and at times downright depressed - letting it hang over his entire day like a bad storm cloud. I agree with him that when it's July 5th and we havent even begun to have summer weather yet - it sucks. But I tend to take it with a grain of salt and let it roll off my shoulders. Sulking and complaining about the bad weather is not going to change anything - so I try to just go about my day either way.

How about you? Does bad weather really affect you or the people around you? How do you handle their mood shifts - and/or encourage them to get over it?

Happy sunshiney day!

Happy Independence Weekend!

2010-07-02T14:32:00.001-07:00

Happy 4th of July, originally uploaded by scubadive67.

Happy happy weekend!

How are you all planning to celebrate?

We've got a fairly low-key weekend planned - still trying to get the puppy potty trained and keeping him entertained are taking up most of our time! I promise I'll post more photos and more about our puppy-parent lives soon - for those of you who are interested.

We'll of course be hanging out with friends on Sunday for a BBQ and watching some fireworks - it wouldnt be the 4th without it!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, take time to relax, enjoy and have fun!

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

2010-06-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Mr. Buck and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. I cannot believe how fast these 2 years have flown by. We've had great adventures, travels, fun with friends and family, taken on the responsibility of a new puppy, and do our best to keep up with the responsibilities of home ownership. We've made great new friends, and continue to enjoy our pre-marriage friends! I've loved bringing our two families together, and each of us growing to be a part of eachother's extended families.

I must say thank you to my wonderful husband for all that he does, and all that he is. He keeps me sane, reminds me to relax and also encourages me to be my best. He supports me and is so helpful. He always keeps me laughing and makes sure we've always got something fun going on.

Happy Anniversary Mr. Buck! I love you!

Puppy Time!

2010-06-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting or keeping up with the blogging world for the past few days because I've been spending all my time hanging out with our new puppy!

Meet Gordie!

Getting Fit with Crossfit

2010-06-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

For the past 8 weeks Mr. Buck and I have been trying out a new fitness regime (aka. getting our butts kicked) called Crossfit. We joined a box (Crossfit term for gym - aka. big warehouse with weights, pull-up bars, rowing machines, boxes, medicine balls and other similar forms of torture) and have been sore ever since. A friend of mine started going to a Crossfit affiliate near where we work, and I could see the transformation in her right away. She had given birth to a baby just a few months prior - and if you look at her today you'd never know it. She looks amazing! So I decided to look into this new fitness philosophy and found that it really resonated with me. I convinced Mr.Buck to give it a try as well, and we're off and running...literally.

Crossfit's philosophy is:
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.
~Greg Glassman

After our first session we sent the gym manager this emai:

After visiting your gym and working out with one of your trainers this evening, we have decided that Crossfit really sucks. My throat hurts from sucking so much wind and within minutes of leaving the gym my muscles began to get sore. I think you'd have to be crazy to pay hundreds of dollars to be subjected to such torture.

Please sign us up for the beginner class starting tomorrow. Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Buck

Now that we've been subjecting ourselves to this almost daily torture for two months - we're officially addicted. I'm sore after every single workout and I leave knowing that I've pushed myself to the limit. What a great feeling!

**A few things to note in this video - look for the 65 year old woman. Despite the hard-coreness of this video, I do believe that Crossfit is really for anyone who is interested in getting really fit and pushing themselves hard. In no way, shape or form am I anywhere near as fit as the people in the video, nor do I feel the need to become a professional lifter - but look around, check out YouTube. People who do Crossfit are in great shape. That's what I strive towards - no more jiggly arms or cellulite on my behind. I want to be fit!

Does anyone else out there do Crossfit? For those that don't - would you consider giving it a try or do you think we're insane? I highly recommend it!

Inspired by Iceland

2010-06-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

When Mr. Buck and I traveled to Europe around New Years this year we almost took Iceland Air and stopped over for a few days to visit that part of the world. Ultimately we ended up taking another route in order to spend more of our precious vacation time at our planned destinations - but this video makes me seriously wish we'd given the Iceland route a shot!

c/o:The Five Senses

I wish I had this much fun in high school!

2010-06-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

The 2009/2010 class at my high school came together to create this fun video - would have loved it if we'd done something like this when I was there!

Summer Shoe Style

2010-06-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

Finally the sun has come out to play here in Seattle so I got my first chance to sport these fun summer sandals that I just ordered from Piperlime. They were on sale a week or so ago so I snagged them up. It's amazing how much of a difference 5 inches makes to your height - I'm seeing the world from a whole new perspective!

Book Report: Catching Genious by Kristy Kiernan

2010-06-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

c/o: Amazon

I just finished reading Catching Genius by Kristy Kiernan and had to share. This is a very heartfelt book about two sisters who became estranged in childhood and are now forced to try to mend their relationship as adults. After decades apart and after pursuing vastly different lives, they're brought together to try to find common ground and recapture the initial bond they shared as very young girls. Not having a sister myself I was still able to connect with the characters in this book and silently root for them to work it out. The book takes on challenging and unfriendly themes - cheating, divorce, unruly teenagers, sickness among others, but ultimately brings us back to the bond of family and the impact nature can have on our lives and well being.

I'd highly recommend checking out this book if you get the chance.

Any recommendations on what I should get next from the library?

Thanks as always!
Mrs.Buck

LÄRABAR Love

2010-06-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

c/o: LÄRABAR

My latest food find is of the all-natural sort, and I'm in love. Have you ever had a granola/energy/snack bar with an ingredient list this simple? LÄRABAR's Apple Pie flavor consists of: Dates, Almonds, Unsweetened Apples, Walnuts, Raisins and Cinnamon. That's it! Nothing funky, nothing with a name I cannot pronounce. Just whole, healthy, delicious foods mushed together into a portable mouth-watering snack.

What other food finds have you stumbled upon lately that are worth checking out?

**Note: In no way was I asked to review this product - I was not given samples etc...I simply found a product that I love and wanted to share with you all :-)